


A Bed Of Roses

by FireGiant



Series: Rosemary Dimitrescu [3]
Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Detailed Gore, Explicit Gore, F/F, OC is a gay disaster, Torture, Violence, but only in one chapter, the rating will probably go up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:01:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 39
Words: 66,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29189724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireGiant/pseuds/FireGiant
Summary: After an attack by a vampire hunter, Alcina has to focus all of her time and energy on figuring out how to stop more from coming. Meaning that someone else has to look after her youngest daughter Rosemary, and she needs her other daughters on the forefront. So she highers a nanny.I think we ALL know where this is going.I changed the names of the other two sisters. Alina has become Eliane, and Sophia has become Damara. I did this with all of my fics.The author of "no one fucks with my baby (except me)” has expressed frustration that the names they chose for the other two sisters were being used in other fics without crediting the work. I intend to respect their wishes. So I have gone in and changed out the names.
Relationships: Lady Dimitrescu & Daughters, Lady Dimitrescu/Original Female Character, Original Female Character & Heisenberg (Resident Evil)
Series: Rosemary Dimitrescu [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140995
Comments: 571
Kudos: 468





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was suggested to me in one of the comment sections of my other works by Spoilergirl.

Chapter One

His name was Joseph Kingsburg, and he was going to bring back the head of Lady Dimitrescu and show it to all of the people who said he would fail. He would bask in shocked faces and laugh as they stuttered out their apologies. He laughed to himself, lost in his fantasy. He looked up at the castle through the gaps in the trees. The moonlight shone down on the freshly fallen snow making it glitter and sparkle.

The crossbow in his hand suddenly felt heavy like it had turned to stone. He tightened his grip on the weapon and straightened his shoulders, flicking his head to get the wisp of hair out of his eyes. When that wasn’t enough he allowed the crossbow to point towards the ground, the handle in his left hand. After all, he wanted to look good when presenting that bitch’s head. 

He grabbed his crossbow again now that his hair was fixed and continued to trudge through the forest. A bitter wind blew in his face, undoing the work he had done on his hair. The cold air bit at his nose and made his eyes water. He blinked them back. He shuttered even in the clothing he was in. It was still cold out here. Why did the wench have to live so far north?

The porcelain white snow crunched under his boots and the cold that surrounded them seemed into it and in turn, seeped into his body. He looked behind his shoulder. There was a trail of where he had been, but with the snow falling so rapidly it was quickly becoming covered up. Good. They would have a harder time tracking him, or at least they would have a harder time figuring out where he had been, but he was sure that they would be able to smell him with their vampire sense.

Vampires were so disgusting. Undead being paler than the snow, feeding off of the blood of other beings. Those damn parasites. The dead should stay dead and remain separate from the living. That’s what he was here for. To set things right, to do mother nature’s will when it got away from her.

There was a sudden snap of a branch and then a hiss. A shadow darted over his head. He could barely make out what was said, but he was almost certain that it was a curse. He spun around where he stood looking for the source of the noise. His grip on the crossbow tightened. His heart began to pound and a part of him began to regret his decision to come out here alone. There was a reason that vampire hunters never worked alone. It was easy to get overpowered by either one of these creatures. Let alone two, and he heard that there were at least four in there. And each one could easily pin him down and rip on his heart with their bare hands. 

He felt his heart drop as there was a whoosh as something flew through the air. And then he heard the distinct sound of insect buzzing. He had heard of the Dimitrescu daughters, he had never seen them, but anyone who was a vampire hunter had at least heard of them. He had heard of their strange insects that surrounded them wherever they went. Walking locust storms, some would call them as a joke. They were top price. Even the head of a daughter, one of the main prizes subordinates, could get you enough money so you wouldn’t have to work again a day in your life. 

As inviting that life seemed, he wanted the head of the lady herself. It wasn’t all about the money, to some vampire hunters, hunting was a game. A dangerous one at that. To see how big of a “fish” you could catch. And he wanted Lady Dimitrescu. The untouchable, some called her. If he got her, he wouldn’t just get the money, he would get the fame, his name would go down in vampire hunter history as the man who killed Lady Dimitrescu all on his own.

But he was quickly taken out of that fantasy as a sharp pain erupted in the middle of his back followed by a pressure. Suddenly before he realized what was going on, he was being thrown forward. He sprawled. The crossbow slipped from his hands and skidded forwards a few feet from his face. He tried to crawl toward it but he felt a new force on his back. It was most likely a heel of a boot. But he wasn’t sure because he couldn’t see behind him. But still, he tried to pull himself forward and grab his crossbow. 

He was suddenly pulled back, his fingers dug into the ground as he tried to desperately hold on. He was being flipped onto his back. He hit the ground hard, the wind was knocked out of him. He laid there, gaping like a fish out of water, trying to breathe but finding himself unable. He felt true panic begin to settle into him. He was now uncomfortably aware that he had made a very stupid decision and he was going to die. 

He looked up at his attacker and would have shrieked in horror at the face he was looking at. It was the face of a blonde woman. Blood poured down his chin and her golden eye gore into his gleaming with sadistic blood lust. A high-pitched and harsh laugh escaped her lips. 

Bugs flew around her head, her body, diving into her clothes and crawling along her skin. He could hear the buzz of their wings rapidly flapping and they were buzzing  _ loudly _ . Oddly enough they sounded angry. He tried to back away, now all he wanted to do was to get as far away from this woman as possible. 

But the same boot that he kept him from running before came down onto his stomach. He had only just gotten the air back into his lungs as the heel of the boot came down. Luckily it didn’t knock the wind out of him, but he felt a dull pain beginning to grow in his belly like he was slowly being sucked into a black hole in the middle of his body. 

He groaned in pain and the daughter laughed. A wild look grew in her eyes like a pod of molten gold spilling out onto the floor. “That's the sound I like to hear.” She said. He leaned over him reaching into her wait line and pulling out a sickle. In the pale moonlight, he could see the dried remnants of browning blood. 

Quickly he reached into one of his pockets lining the leg of his pants and produced a switchblade. The blade popped out of its handle and with the little strength he had left seeping from his limbs he slashed it across her shin. 

The daughter jerked back her leg screaming in pain. A sound that was music to his ears. Suddenly finding newfound strength he quickly turned over and pulled himself towards the Crossbow. It was still ready to fire, thankfully, lucky it hadn’t gone off, somehow.

He turned and aimed it at the daughter who was now charging towards him, her fingers bent like claws. He fired, and the bolt slammed into the daughter's arm. The force knocked her back and he saw her eyes widen with shock. He got up, a beat of drool running down from his mouth mixing with the blood flowing from his lip. 

He grabbed another bolt from a holder he was carrying and loaded it into the weapon, training it onto the vampire, feeling victorious. Maybe he wouldn’t bring back the lady’s head, but her daughter would more than suffice after what he has just gone through. “You die today,  _ Bitch _ .” He spat readying his finger on the trigger. 

“NO!” A sharp voice shouted behind him. Something slammed into his back, just as he pulled the trigger. The bolt fired but it only hit the wenches arm. She screamed in pain again and he felt a smile as sadistic as her’s had been growing on his face. 

There was a sudden pain in his back. It began dull and then grew and grew until it felt like a white-hot metal stick was pressing into his skin. And then he felt wriggling in his guts. He could feel the thousands of legs of insects wriggling through his body. He glanced behind him to see another daughter standing behind him. Her hair was red and her golden eyes glowed with unbridled fury.

A swarm of insects burst from his stomach in thick black clouds. He screamed in pain and fear as he fell to the ground. He watched as the white snow around him grew red with his own blood. He felt fear settling into him, as his limbs became weak and as his vision began to burr. He didn’t want to die. It was too soon, he was only twenty! He had an older brother, he had nieces and nephews that would miss him. But it was all too late, and with that realization, his eyes grew heavy until his vision faded to black. 

  
  
  
  


Eliane looked at the man who now lay crumpled on the ground. He was still twitching, but he was more or less dead. She turned her attention to her sister who was cradling her arm which still had bolted into them. 

Eliane rushed to her side. “Are you alright?” She asked. 

“I’ve been shot, what do you think?” Daniela asked. Even while in pain she still could have some snark. Part of Eliane was about to drop her sister and get her in the morning to see how much she likes it, but she would never do that. She and Daniela tended to fight a lot, but at the end of the day Daniela was her sister and she loved her. 

“This is going to hurt okay?” She said grabbing a hold of one of the bolts. 

“Wait, wait, no! What are you doing?” Daniela asked, panic rising in her voice. Without warning, Eliane pulled as hard as she could and yanked the first one out. She did the same thing with the second one. Daniela’s scream rang out through the forest. Somewhere Eliane was sure a flock of birds just startled from their branch at that sound, but out here, the echo only mocked Daniela’s pain. “The fuck was that for?” Daniela shrieked, tears building in her eyes. 

“They needed to come out.” Eliane said briskly, yet her actions were far more tender as she cradled her hurt sister's face and wiped the tears away with her thumb. She pulled away from her sister and pulled bandages from her pocket, they would only be temporary but for now, they would do. She scooped Daniela into her arms, her oldest sister clung to her whimpering in pain as she carried her back to the castle. 

When she came back Mother rushed to her. Her eyes wide with fear as she took Daniela from her sister. 

“What happened?” Mother demanded.

“The hunter was more prepared than we thought.” Eliane said. 

“I should never have let you go alone.” Mother said cradling Daniela in her arms and peppering kisses all over her face. 

“Mother, I’m fine, It’s just a scratch.” Daniela said, her voice weak. 

“You are certainly not fine, young lady.” Mother said standing up and taking her to her room. Eliane watched her go. The moment she was gone, she let out a huff of air, she felt her limbs so limp, they felt like noodles. That was too close. Far too close.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Alcina rushed Daniela to her room. She hung limply in her arms as if she was some giant rag doll. Her poor daughter had passed out from blood loss, and before that she was near delirious, laughing at almost anything and everything that they passed. The bandages that her sister had provided her had become so soaked with blood that they were dripping, leaving a trail of red on the floor. They were quickly replaced with fresh ones, but those were rapidly collecting blood. Slowly the red expanded on the cloth wraps until it looked as if they had been dyed that way. 

Alcina set the now unconscious woman on the bed and gently allowed her to fall back onto the mattress. She bounced lightly. Alcina pulled off the bandages and ran around the room like a lunatic looking for new ones. She was practically ripping the drawers open when she finally found a roll and ran back over to her daughter.

She wrapped her daughter's arm once more, applying pressure to make the bleeding stop. More red showed up on the bandages, and for a moment Alcina felt a stab of fear in her gut, but there was significantly less of it like there had been the other two times. After a minute the small dots stopped growing Alcina slumped down to the ground at the foot of Daniela’s bed sighing in relief. Her heart still pounded in her chest, and she could feel the prickle of tears in her eyes. But she blinked them away. 

After what seemed like hours of silence there was a knock on the door. Eliane stood in the doorway, her eyes wide with terror. A sharp wail filled the silence. Alcina swallowed a sigh and got up. She walked over to the door feeling a mild headache forming as her stress level reached a level she had only felt when Daniela was a rambunctious toddler. She opened the door only to see the source of the noise was right behind her second oldest daughter. Damara stood behind her, holding Rosie in her arms. 

Rosie looked incredibly upset, her arms and legs kicked wildly trying to squirm her way out of Damara’s grasp. Her bottom lip poked out and she was whimpering, threatening to turn it into a full-on crying fit. Damara was barely holding onto her own emotions, a few stray tears rolled down her cheeks. She looked just as miserable as Rosie did, if not more. 

Alcina pushed the door open a little further allowing her three other daughters into their sister's room. Eliane walked past Alcina and speed-walked over to her sister's bedside where she sat down next to her and began to gently stroke her sister’s face. 

“I should be the one in her place.” Eliane said. “I broke the branch, I alerted him to our presents. I Should've gotten hurt instead of her.” She said, her voice shaking and cracking in various places. 

Alcina turned to look at her daughter, ready to walk over and comfort her. “It was no one’s fault.” Alcina said, as Damara practically threw herself into her arms with a slight ‘oomph’. Alcina just barely was able to catch her as she practically fell forwards. Rosie squeaked in defiance as she was squished between her sister and her mother. Damara seemed to pay her no mind, instead, she buried her face into her mother's abdomen.

Alcina pulled back for a minute moving over to the side of the bed where Eliane was and sat down on the corner of it. The mattress dipped under her weight and she shifted so she didn’t fall off. She opened her arms a sign to her daughter that she could rejoin her. Damara fell back into her, after setting Rosie more in towards the middle of the bed. Alcina wrapped her arms around Damara. 

“Mama?” Damara said, her voice sounded thick and shaky like she was on the verge of tears. Mama. It was what her daughters used to call her when they were much younger. They eventually “grew too old for it” and began to call her  _ Mother _ because it sounded more “mature”. 

“Yes, my love?” She asked softly, gently stroking her daughter’s thick brown hair. Eliane saw what was happening and joined Alcina and her sister. She got onto the bed and scooted over to her mother before sitting cross-legged and leaned into her mother’s back. She scooped up Rosie and set her in her lap. Eliane set her chin on Alcina’s shoulder to which She tilted her head so she covered it.

“I’m scared.” Damara said into her shoulder, Alcina held her a little tighter. Alcina felt the wet of tears soaking into her clothes. “Is Dani going to be alright?” Damara asked.

“Dani is going to be  _ just fine _ .” Alcina said, trying to put as much determination in her voice as she could muster. She needed to be strong. Strong for her daughters. If she freaked out, then they would undoubtedly follow her lead. She had to remain calm if this situation were to get any better. 

Alcina glanced down when she heard a soft coo from her youngest daughter sitting in her sister’s lap. She managed to climb over the little wall created by her sister’s crossed legs and gently patted Alcina’s arm. She couldn’t help but smile at her.

“Where is that hunter?” Alcina asked, feeling a boiling hot rage fill her. He was going to pay for what he did to her eldest daughter. He was going to suffer, and she was going to enjoy each and every one of his screams as she ripped them from him. It was like liquid fire had been poured into her and it wasn’t going to go out until it consumed her. Eliane shook her head and Alcina looked at her daughter, confused as to why she was shaking her head. 

“It’s okay Mama.” She said softly, Alcina could barely hear her as her daughter mumbling into the fabric clinging to her shoulder. “I killed him.” Eliane said. “Should I send his body back to the hunters?” She asked softly, leaning a little harder into her shoulder. It was starting to become painful. Eliane had a very sharp chin, but Alcina said nothing about it.

“No.” She said finally after a minute. “That would be doing him too much service. Leave him out for the wolves to eat him like the  _ animal _ he is.” She said tensing for a moment before relaxing once she felt her daughters become tense alongside her.

Alcina closed her eyes, listening to the sounds of the trees and the wind. And the sounds of all four of her daughters breaking with her. It was comforting.

Slowly she leaned back. Her daughters, leaning back with her. She laid diagonally across her daughter’s bed, with her legs dangling off the side. She felt Eliane and Damara move up and curl up at her sides. She heard them drift off, their breathing becoming more and more even as the minutes passed by. 

She should have been more prepared. But she was tired nowadays. Rosie was well worth it,  _ infinitely _ worth it, all of her daughters were, but she was a lot of work. She had been taking up so much of her time, keeping track of her, potty training her, feeding her, cleaning up her messes, Alcina couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so exhausted. 

If she wanted to be ready for an attack from more vampire hunters, which there were always more. It was the same with termites, or ants, if there was one, there was most likely more of them lurking around ready to pounce. And if she wanted to be ready for them, she would have to be at her fullest. And she couldn’t afford to leave one of her daughters behind to watch over Rosie. She needed them by her side fighting. 

She knew what they needed. They needed a nanny. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

When Daniela woke she sat up rapidly in her bed with a sharp gasp. The hunter shot her, and Eliane pulled the arrow out. She remembered the slick feeling of blood, her own blood, running down her arm and leg. She remembered how heavy her clothing felt when they were soaked in it. She looked around, her heart pounding in her chest, threatening to break free of her ribcage. 

She wasn’t outside, she wasn’t cold, and she wasn’t surrounded by blood-soaked snow. In fact, she wasn't even cold. She was in her room, and she had thick blankets loosely wrapped around her. As the panic began to slowly fade from her body, she felt a sharp pain in her arm. Suddenly as if her arm had suddenly turned to paper she collapsed back onto her bed with a little “oof!”. She noticed that her arm and leg had been bandaged.

Her curtains had been drawn closed, but she could see little pools of light seeping from the cracks and pooling on the floor. She could see the dust particles in the air, illuminated by the light drifting by. 

There was a soft knock on the door, but the knob began to turn before she gave a reply. That was a bad habit that Mother had been making. She would knock, and that was all well and good, but she wouldn’t wait for a response she would just walk in. There were several occasions where she walked in on her getting dressed that way. Which at times Daniela found incredibly annoying, but right now she was grateful for it. She wasn’t sure if she had the capacity to speak.

Mother ducked as she entered the room, due to her size. But once she was at her full height her golden eyes landed on Daniela. There was a softness to them, like petals on a sunflower. And for a minute mother just stared at her as if she was taking her in for the very last time. Daniela shifted starting to feel slightly uncomfortable. 

“Good morning Mother.” Daniela said softly, snuggling a little more into her blankets. 

“Actually it’s ‘good afternoon’, my dear.” Mother said with a light chuckle, walking over to her and gently sitting on the side of the bed. The corner of the bed dipped significantly under Mother’s weight. Daniela felt herself slide forward ever so slightly. 

“Afternoon?” Daniela said, her eyes widening. She made a sudden move to get up, but then she was reminded of the injury on her arm by a sharp pain that shot through her arm and settled. She collapsed back down hissing softly.

“Relax, my dear.” Mother said leaning forward and allowing a large hand to gently press into her good shoulder and push her further into her bed. “You were shot, I think that’s more than a good enough reason for sleeping late.” She said a small smile tugging at her lips. Mother looked down, taking in a heavy breath. “Speaking of that, how do you feel?” She asked.

“Like I got hit by a bus.” Daniela answered honestly, laughing a little bit. Mother chuckled softly along with her, but her eyes seemed to cloud for a split second. Her eyes darted away from Daniela’s and shifted across the room. For a moment, that seemed to stretch for hours, they remained silent. The silence felt heavy, like fog. It was like there was so much to say, but not enough words to say it with, so there was just silence instead. Only the sounds of their breathing could be heard.

“Mother?” Daniela asked, sitting up holding herself up with her good arm. Her bad hand slowly came forward and covered Mother’s hand. Mother turned her hand over and her long gloved fingers slowly curled around Daniela’s. Her grip was gentle but firm. Daniela knew what that meant, it was a silent promise, a declaration “I’ll never let go.” it told her. Daniela’s hand was a fraction of the size. Her hand could easily fit in the palm of Mother’s hand and there would still be room to space. “What are you thinking about?” Daniela asked softly. 

Mother opened her mouth to reply but then closed it as if the words had simply fallen out of her mouth. She smiled, looking up at Daniela, she lightly shook her head. “It’s nothing.” She said softly. The grip around Daniela’s hand loosened as Mother’s long fingers slipped away. “Rest, you need it, call if you need anything.” Mother said. 

Mother leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss onto Daniela’s forehead. Right where her symbol was. When she pulled back, her eyes were soft again, like she was looking at something truly precious.

She got up from the corner of the bed and headed back over to the door. Her hand wrapped around the handle before she paused and turned back to her daughter. “Daniela?” She asked softly, her voice was barely above a whisper. 

“Yes, Mother?” Daniela asked looking at the almost regal-looking woman before her. 

“I love you.” She said. 

Daniela smiled. “I love you too.”

And with that Mother ducked out of the room. The door clicked shut softly behind her and Daniela listened to her soft footsteps as they grew softer and softer. Daniela laid back down and closed her eyes sucking in a breath of air. For a moment she held it before slowly letting it out. 

  
  
  
  


Alcina was still taking in the fact that last night was far too close. She was still processing that she almost lost Daniela, for good. If Eliane hadn’t been there, Daniela would not have survived. She would have lost her daughter to that animal of a man.

But now Daniela was safe, and the threat to her life had been handled. That was all that mattered now. 

Eliane had been the first to wake. She had stayed on that bed until her other daughters started to wake up. They shifted their positions slightly in the night. Eliane could just barely recall her shifting alongside her daughters so they weren’t all collectively about to fall off the side of the bed. 

When she had woken she had somehow configured herself beside her daughter. She hadn't remembered doing it, it still shocked her how mobile she could be even when she was half asleep. Her head laying next to Daniela's. She was practically wrapped around Daniela. Eliane had shifted away from Eliane and had changed her position so that she was curled up next to her sister as if she was guarding her against any other threats. Rosie had fallen asleep on Eliane’s chest, a small dribble of drool leaking out of her mouth as she slept. 

Damara had stayed by her side. She had been lying horizontally across the bed, as Alcina had been with her head resting on her stomach, using it as a pillow. 

Now her other daughters were outside with Rosie. Rosie was seated on a small blanket laid on the ground to make it a little more comfortable as her sisters took turns blowing bubbles. Alcina smiled as she watched her daughter clap her hands and reach for the clear spheres floating through the air. 

She wore a look of shock and confusion as she grabbed on excitedly and opened her hands only to find that it had gone.

Damara handed the bottle to Eliane who blew a bubble around one of her insects. Alcina saw Rosie’s legs kick excitedly as she reached for the bubble with the fly buzzing inside.

Rosie grabbed the bubble and was in the process of bringing it up to her mouth when both of her sisters hurriedly stopped her, while the other one and tried to pry her hands open. Alcina could see her daughter laughing hysterically as her sisters tried desperately to free their bug. 

After a minute or two, Rosie let go watching in awe as the bug flew upwards and flew away back into the swarm that surrounded her other two sisters. Alcina smiled as she descended the stairs and into her small office room.

She needed to make a phone call. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four 

**A Week Later**

“Here we are.” The taxi man said, turning to look at Kat from the front seat. Kat pulled out her wallet and produced some change which she gently put into the old man’s hand. She noticed that the palm of his hand felt rough with calluses formed over the years. 

She climbed out of the car and closed the door behind her. The taxi man rolled down his window. Kat turned to look at him. His thin, wispy, white hair danced as the wind around him swirled into his car, bringing in just a few flakes of snow. “Say, ‘hello’ to the lady for me.” He said, an almost playful smile tugging at his wrinkled face. Kat found this kind of odd, for most of the ride, the man sat stone-faced in the front seat, not making much conversation. She wasn’t that opposed to it, she wasn’t the conversational type, either. 

But what struck her as odd was that he would always glance at her. And he had this look in his eye, that made her think he thought she was going to attack him at any moment. She could see his eyes squinting at her, looking at her from the rear-view mirror. Kat didn’t say anything about it. He probably meant nothing by it, and he hadn’t done anything outwardly creepy. And she didn’t want to come off as rude. What was even stranger was that when she looked at him, he would quickly glance away, like he was trying to pretend that he wasn’t. It made Kat kind of uneasy. It was probably nothing, just her being paranoid. But she was grateful to be out of his car, at least. But standing outside, suddenly made her feel even more uneasy.

She grabbed her small suitcase from the seat sitting beside her. The application said that a room and meals would be provided, but she needed to bring her own clothes. Which made sense. Kat had nannied before, but she had never stayed with the kid’s family. This was a first for her. Kat felt her glasses sliding off of her nose, she quickly pushed them back up. 

It was well past evening and the sky was now dark, yet starless blocked by the thick clouds that hung in the sky. Beyond the castle’s ground, all she could see were the dark shapes of trees, like gnarled hands rising from the ground, reaching and grabbing towards the sky. And she swore she saw something darting between the thick trunked trees. Maybe it was just an animal. Yes. That’s what it had to be. Monsters weren’t real. 

Kat shook her head, not sure how long she zoned out for. The man was still sitting in the driver's seat, his hand on the wheel as if waiting for her to respond. She offered him a smile. “Sure thing.” She chuckled. Perhaps he and the lady of the house were friends or something of that nature. “Have a nice night.” She called as the man rolled his window up and began to pull away. She wasn’t sure if she heard him, but he did give a half-hearted wave in her direction. 

Kat wasn't particularly fond of darkness, one would never know what might be lurking around the corner if they could not see. But it had a nice contrast against the snow, the snow swirled through the air as it fluttered to the ground. Before the car went around the little village, Kat had been completely awed by the scene. It looked like it had been ripped off the canvas of a painting and placed into reality. It was absolutely beautiful. And the castle was _huge_. She had never seen a building quite at that scale before. Kat had been left slack-jawed before she set foot inside of it. But now that she was standing looking up at it, made her realize just how large the building was. 

Kat walked up the snow-covered steps, smiling as the snow crunched under her feet. She always loved snow, ever since she was a little girl. There was a loud crack from the forest behind her, and then a wolf began to howl. A low mournful noise, at the nonexistent moon. Kat felt her heart jump into her throat for a moment. She jogged the rest of the way up the stairs. It wouldn’t save her from a pack of hungry wolves but at least there was some higher ground.

She slowly walked up to the massive front doors, feeling a sense of awe, she suddenly felt so small. She grabbed the door knocker and hesitated for a moment, and then knocked on the door. There was a hollow boom each time the metal handle hit the dark wood.

There was a small chorus of muffled voices that tumbled and spoke over each other and then there was a soft pounding of footsteps from behind the door. The door opened to reveal a tall auburn-haired woman. The tall woman leaned against the doorway, before craning her neck back into the castle. 

“Mother they’re here.” She called. Then she turned to look back at Kat. Kat couldn’t help but feel short around her. And Kat wouldn’t really call herself short, per se, but she certainly wasn’t tall. She was average five foot, four, and three-quarters inches. It was just tall enough to reach all the places she needed to get back at home, but it seemed she might be challenged if the interior was as large as the exterior. However, no matter what Kat considered herself to be involving her height, compared to this woman, whose chin sailed far above the top of Kat’s head, she was definitely short. 

“Oh, excellent.” A voice said obscured by the massive door and the woman who was currently blocking her path. “Let them in.” The voice said and the auburn-haired woman stepped back into the house leaving the door open for Kat to step inside. The small suitcase rolled behind her. 

The inside of the building sparkled and gleamed in the yellow candlelight. Kat looked around a goofy smile forming on her face, it felt like she was talking onto a movie set. These people lived here? That must be nice when she was a little girl she wished that she lived in a castle. 

There was another woman standing further into the house. She was a little shorter than the woman who had greeted Kat at the door. She stood with her hands clasped in front of her. Despite being shorter than her counterpart these two women still were very tall. They had to be at least six feet tall. There was no doubt about that.

But standing next to her was a giantess. She was _huge_ , probably taller than the doorway Kat just walked through. Kat tried not to stare. It was rude of her to do so, but it was so hard not to. Part of her wasn’t entirely sure if this woman wasn’t just two people standing on each other’s shoulders. Could a human get this big? Was she even human? Maybe it was just the light, but it seemed like there was an aura that seemed to surround her. 

The woman didn’t seem to notice Kat’s dumbfoundedness at her height. Well, she didn’t notice, or she didn’t care. The woman’s lips moved, it took Kat a moment to realize that she was talking to her. 

“Miss Katherine Collins, is it?” The woman asked when her world finally got to Kat’s ears. Kat startled, feeling a bit of heat flush into her face. She felt herself begin to sweat. Her glasses once more began to slide down her face and Kat quickly fixed them back onto the bridge of her nose. The room suddenly felt uncomfortably hot. Kat blamed it on the coat she was wearing. 

The woman stared at her waiting for her response. Kat couldn’t help but feel like she was judging her in some way. It made her feel a little embarrassed. “Yes, that me.” She said adding a little chuckle at the end of her sentence trying to lighten the mood. “Oh, but you can call me Kat.” Kat added quickly. 

To Kat’s relief, the woman smiled. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The woman said. “I am Alcina Dimitrescu.” She said, before turning to the two other women beside her. “These are my daughters, Eliane, and Damara.” 

Kat waved at them awkwardly giving them a smile that they didn’t return back to her. Kat dropped her hand and turned away feeling a little more silly. 

“If you follow me, I will take you to your room. You must be tired after such a long journey, I will explain to you your duties tomorrow.” Ms Dimitrescu- no the old man had called her lady- Lady Dimitrescu. It still sounded strange to call her that, it sounded almost medieval. Whatever Kat would figure more out in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not exactly sure how tall the daughters are. But when looking at a picture of them all standing together it looked like they came to the middle of Alcina's arm.
> 
> Just if you're curious...  
> Daniela is 7' 4  
> Damara is 7' 3  
> Eliane is 7' 4
> 
> (I've realized their even taller than six feet)


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five 

Lady Dimitrescu directed Kat to her room and then left. The door shut behind them with a deep thunk of wood bumping against wood. Kat sighed, she had the strangest feeling that the family, despite being the ones to have hired her, didn’t seem to want her here. They just seemed relatively aloof towards her. 

Maybe she came off wrong. Did she offend them somehow? Was she disrespectful in some way? She hoped she didn’t offend them, that's not what she wanted. Kat walked over to her bed as her thoughts spiraled until ridiculous concepts began to form in her mind and she pushed them away. She didn’t want to work herself up over something that was potentially nothing. It was late at night, and maybe they were tired. Kat sometimes came off as aloof when she was tired and her brain was too slow to process what was going on around her. Kat was sure that things would be better in the morning.

The room was lit by a single candle inside of a candle holder, hot wax ran down the candle quickly drying. It sat on a small dresser on the other side of the room. The flame danced and flickered. The light it gave off wasn’t very bright, it was a deep golden color that sent shadows dancing across the floor in tandem with the little flame. Kat looked away from the dancing flame, but there was already a spot in her eyes. She blinked a few times but that didn’t make it go away.

She supposed that things could be far worse. They could’ve been serial killers that wanted to kill her in her sleep and harvest her organs. She joked with herself, laughing quietly over the ridiculous concept. She sat her suitcase down on the floor and unzipped it, and flipped it open. She sifted through the neat piles of clothing, slightly disturbing them and making them look a little less tight, that she had brought with her until she found what she was looking for. Her pajamas. 

It was a plain white tank top with fluffy, white tiger, striped pants. She quickly changed out of her clothes from the day before and left them on the open lid of her suitcase. She would worry about them in the morning, she thought to herself as she yawned and stretched. She heard her joint pop. It was probably from sitting in that car for so long. 

She turned and walked towards the bed which had been made up for her. That was kind of them. The bed looked like one of those old-timey four-poster beds from movies. She smiled to herself. She pulled back the thick blankets and slipped under the covers.

The bed was huge, so was the room. Well large to her, compared to the rest of the building it was tiny. But most of the bedrooms she had stayed in were not even a quarter of the size. Kat laid back against the pillows. The wood creaked around her as she shifted, trying to get comfortable. 

Kat had that strange feeling again. The strange feeling that invisible eyes were boring into her from a place that she could not see. The same feeling she had felt when she had looked at the woods. It felt like cold fingers were slowly crawling up her back. She shuttered, she sat up looking at the candle that was still flickering on the desk. She wondered if she needed to blow it out. But if she did that then she would be in complete darkness. 

Kat wasn’t afraid of the dark. But for some reason the thought of being in a wide-open room in complete darkness, especially this room. The thought just freaked her out. It was the childish thought that something could be lurking in a far corner and she would be unable to see it. Eventually, she decided that if she left it on she was going to burn the building down and begrudgingly got up and walked over to the desk. She picked up the small candle holding and blew. 

The dancing flame was blown back and then went out. Kat signed to herself. She should have brought a flashlight or something. She was now in complete darkness. She set the candle holder back onto the desk with a low thunk. Wisps of smoke rose from the blackened wick. 

Kat began to baby step her way back to her bed leaning forward and trying to feel if anything was in her way. When the tips of her fingers met the cold wood of the bed, she jumped for a minute thinking she touched something living. Then she realized it was just the bed and shuffled around to get back into it. 

She laid back in her bed and closed her eyes. Only to remember a minute later that her glasses were still on. She carefully pulled them off her face and folded them up. She got up, sat a little further up, and placed them on the small stand next to the bed.

She laid back in her new bed and closed her eyes. That feeling was still there, making her hair stand up on end. But it was slowly going away, like the pain from a scrape. Eventually, it just faded away. 

For a moment Kat allowed her mind to wander again. Instead of picking out something that would inevitably make her feel uneasy, her mind wanted over to Lady Dimitrescu. Kat felt that same heat in her cheeks. She suddenly felt hot, making her want to kick her blankets off. 

Kat wasn’t one to believe in "love" at first sight. She hadn’t really formed curhsed on people when she was in school. And she never really felt the need for a relationship at that time. Maybe love wasn’t the best word for it. Love was _definitely_ not the thing that Kat was feeling at this very moment. But she was feeling _admiration_ for this woman. 

First of all, Kat couldn’t get over her height. She was enormous. She wondered to herself if it was possible that a human could even get that large. And there just seemed to be this regal aura that surrounded the woman. There was just something about her that Kat couldn’t ignore.

Kat tried to push her thoughts out of her head again. They were inappropriate and they needed to remain in check. Finally, after what felt like hours Kat fell into an uneasy sleep. 

  
  
  
  
  


When Kat woke up everything was a slightly blurrier version of what she had seen before. She looked for the fuzzy outline of what might be glasses and slid them back onto her face. The world became clearer. 

Light was seeping into the room and everything was generally friendlier looking now that she could properly see into the nooks and crannies of the room. 

She got up, got dressed, and headed out of her room. She opened her door and was slightly startled when she saw one of the daughters standing in front of her room. She was leaning against the wall outside of her room. It had given Kat a little bit of a fight to turn around and have someone so much taller than her right behind her.

“Oh, go-good morning.” Kat said, quickly fixing her startled stutter. The girl had brown hair. Kat tried to remember whether it was Damara or Eliane who had brown hair. “Could you remind me of your name?” Kat asked shyly. 

“Damara.” Damara said. Damara, Kat said to herself. Damara, Damara, Damara. That shouldn’t be too hard to remember.

“So what are you doing here?” Kat asked, looking up at Damara, who was looking at her nails as if there was something microscopic on them. Her face remained relatively indifferent. Kat wasn’t sure what to make of it. 

“Mother said I needed to give you a tour of the castle so you knew your way around.” Damara explained flicking her fingers and looking up at Kat. 

“Where is your mother?” Kat asked looking around. 

“She’s out, right now.” Damara said dismissively. “I’m supposed to meet her later today.” Damara added.

“Oh, where are you meeting up?” Kat asked, trying to start some conversation. It was good to get along with your employer after all. But Damara didn’t seem to care about such things. 

“I don’t think you would have heard of the place.” Damara said. And that was the end of that. Kat wanted to nag Damara on just a little bit more. But she wasn’t sure if that would end well so she remained silent.

They went down the stairs and passed what Kat was almost certain to be the dining room. It was a long table with chairs around it. There was a little three armed candle holder with three candles almost burned down to the bottom in it. There was also a fruit bowl with fruit in it. It looked like apples. 

Kat’s stomach suddenly growled. She was suddenly aware that she was hungry. Apparently, it was loud enough that Damara heard it. She reached over and plucked a shiny red apple out of the fruit bowl and handed it to Kat. 

Kat thanked her. And took a bit. The apple was sweet. It was a few more minutes before Damara started talking. 

“So what you just saw was the dining room.” Damara said. She sounded almost bored. “I’m going to take you to Rosie’s room.” They turned around and walked back the way they came. They passed two doors down from Kat’s room. Damara opened the heavy wooden door. 

Inside there was a crib and a small shelter with a few crates full of toys. There were a couple strewn around the floor. Some building blocks, a stuffed teddy bear with one button eye handing out of its head. It sat sagging on the floor. It looked like a sad burlap sack that had been left out in the rain. 

They walked in and Damara leaned over the crib. It was the first time that Kat had seen some emotion on her face. With a loving smile, she reached in and wiggled her fingers at the baby in the crib. 

“Good morning, Rosie.” Damara said in a voice a little higher than her normal voice. “There's a guest for you.” Damara said. Damara reached in and gently picked up the baby. 

Rosie cooed and laughed. She wore a white onesie with pink feet. Damara kissed her cheek. There was a sudden ring of a bell that caused Kat and Damara to jump, Kat because she hadn’t expected the sound and Damara because she was apparently late for something. 

“Oh, I’m late, I’ll finish the tour of the place when I get back. The bathroom’s that way.” She said pointing to the left. Damara said, gently handing Rosie over to Kat, she gave Rosie one more smile. And then she was gone. 

Rosie stuck her hand in her mouth and began to gnaw at it. “Hi, Rosie.” Kat said to the baby who looked at her with a slightly confused expression on her face before smiling. This wouldn’t be too hard right. At least Rosie hadn’t responded with tears and screaming. That was a good sign, right? 

Kat walked further into the room and set Rosie down on the small white and pink circular carpet. She grabbed a few blocks and stacked them in front of Rosie who watched her intently. 

Then without warning Rosie suddenly pushed the blocks over, yelling with triumph as the tower that Kat was building for her collapsed to the ground with a low thunk. Rosie looked up at Kat and smiled. 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

It was early the sun had just started to come up over the jagged horizon coloring the sky with yellows, oranges, and pinks. Alcina didn’t usually wake up this early, but it wasn’t like she was going back to sleep anyway. 

She had a hard time sleeping throughout the night, periodically waking up every couple of hours. She was on edge, that much was clear. They hadn’t had a hunter in their ground for decades. So what changed. Where there more? Most likely. And in that case, how many more were there. A competent vampire hunter only needed a partner of two to get the job done swiftly. The one that Eliane had encountered was not experienced, or component, but perhaps he was part of the large group of senior members. Perhaps he was an apprentice.

Alcina got up and changed into her day clothes. She might as well start her day now. She had tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use she wasn’t going back to sleep. Her day had started. She moved towards her vanity, sitting in front of the mirror she began to apply her makeup. 

She capped her lipstick and looked at herself in the mirror one more time. And then she got up, her head was no longer visible in the mirror, only her torso. 

She walked out of her room, her door closed with a heavy thunk. She descended the stairs, which was made a little harder by the lack of sufficient light, and turned into the dining room. 

She was slightly surprised to see that Eliane was already there, dressed and sitting at the table, completely alone. She had something in her hand. It was dark and bloody, probably an organ of some sort, its color suggested that it was a kidney. It was mostly gone, a little chunk of it was left on Elaine’s plate. For some reason, the kidneys were Elaine’s favorite, and when it came to feeding time, it was best that no one got between Eliane and the kidneys. However, Eliane was more or less asleep. Her cheek resting in her palm and her mouth hung open slightly. A little string of drool mixed with kidney bits and blood was illuminated by the flickering light cast by the candles.

Alcina chuckled. It seemed that Eliane was caught in the act of sneaking another midnight snack. Eliane let out a little snore and smacked her lips a few times breaking the string of drool seeping out of her mouth. 

Alcina walked around the table, her shoes clicking against the wooden floor until she was standing next to Eliane’s sleeping form. Alcina reached over and gently rubbed Eliane's shoulder, trying to gently coax her into wakefulness. Eliane shifted, her eyes opened ever so slightly. She sucked in some air into her lungs and then yawned. 

“Eliane.” Alcina said softly. Eliane didn’t respond. She was moving to put her head down on the table, Alcina reached around her daughter and pushed the plate of half-eaten kidney away before Eliane put her face into it. “Eliane.” Alcina said a little bit louder. Eliane lifted her head, her tired eyes opening again. 

“Yeah... what-” Eliane sniffed. “What is it?” She asked rubbing her face, her voice barely more than mumbled gibberish. 

“What are you doing down here?” Alcina asked gently, putting her hand onto the middle of her daughter's back.

“Oh, uh I was getting a snack.” Eliane said her voice, less mumbled, but the tiredness was still there. She reached over to her plate and grabbed the small chunk of kidney left on the plate, about the size of an egg, and bit off half of it before shoving the other half into her mouth. 

Alcina rolled her eyes and sighed. Eliane never quite got the hang of taking small bites, no matter how many looks Alcina gave her, or how many times she tried to remind her to not stuff her mouth so full she could barely chew. 

Eliane whipped her blood-stained hand on the table cloth until all the blood had come off. Well, most of it; some had dried on the palm of her hand. 

“When did you get up?” Alcina asked softly.

“A couple of hours ago.” Eliane said, rubbing her eyes and sitting up a little straighter. 

“That’s pretty early, how’d you sleep?” Alcina asked, already expecting the answer.

“Not well, I kept waking up.” Eliane answered, so I decided to get dressed and get ready if I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. “Now I-” Eliane yawned her sharp fangs visible for a split second before she closed her mouth. “-kind of want to go back to sleep.” Eliane said, rubbing her eyes and yawning once again. 

Seeing her daughter yawn, made Alcina sleepy again as well. She fought her own urge to yawn. Maybe they could go back to bed and wake up at a reasonable hour, next time.

“How about we both go back to bed.” Alcina said softly. Eliane nodded and scooted back her chair, standing up. Together they walked back up the stairs.

“Can I stay with you?” Eliane asked. 

“Yes.” Alcina said as they turned into her room. She took off her shoes and let them fall to the floor. She was too tired to try to fix them. Eliane did the same thing. They both laid down on Alcina’s bed together.

After a minute of shifting around Eliane was snuggled into Alcina’s chest. Eliane seemed to drift off almost instantly, but Alcina stayed away for a little bit longer. She curled her arm over her daughter’s now sleeping form and looked at her face relaxing as she fell deeper and deeper into the land of dreams. 

Alcina leaned forward and planted a soft kiss in the middle of her forehead, right on top of the symbol, before she closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift off once again. 

  
  
  
  
  


Alcina woke up again much later. Much, much later. The sun had come up, but there were still clouds handing in the sky. It had stopped snowing, but it looked like it was going to start up again any time soon. 

Eliane was missing when Alcina woke up, seemingly to have woken up earlier than she had. She got up and noticed that there was a lipstick smear on the pillow. She took a quick look in the vanity, none got on her face. She put her shoes back on and headed out of her room. 

She walked down the stairs to see Eliane and Damara were at the dinner table. Eliane was sitting once again but this time she was accompanied. She sat next to her sister who seemed to have just finished her breakfast. She was cleaning her face with a napkin. 

“Good morning, Mother.” Damara chirped. 

“Good morning, my dear.” Alcina said ducking into the room. “I need you to do something for me.” Alcina said.

“What is it, Mother?” Damara asked. 

“I need you to snow the human around when she wakes up alright. And I want you to meet me at the edge of our grounds at-” Alcina looked around for the clock. “-ellevn.” Alcina said after catching the time. It was around seven in the morning now.

“Yes, mother.” Damara said. 

“Eliane.” Alcina said, turning to look at her other daughter. “I need you with me, are you ready to go?” She asked. 

Eliane nodded. “Yes, Mother, I’m ready to go.”

Alcina exited the dining room and grabbed her cloak. It was thick and black with white fur stitched into the rim of the hood. It was longer than she was tall but only by an inch or so. It dragged along the ground ever so slightly. 

She pushed the heavy wooden door open and stepped outside. She waited for her daughter to catch up to her. She exhaled letting out a puff of water vapor that quickly dissipated.

  
  
  
  


When Eliane got outside she could feel the tension surrounding Mother. It was like a cloud of thick fog had come down to surround her and suffocate anything that got too close. They didn’t say anything to each other when they both headed out towards the woods. 

The first thing that Mother did was locate the hunter’s carcass. It was right where Eliane had left him. Most of the flesh that had been on his limbs had been bitten off by hungry animals desperately looking for a meal. His stomach had been torn open even more and most of his organs had been eaten away at. Eliane could see the tiny bite marks.

His face had been eaten away by animals as well. Where his eyes had been, were now just empty sockets, blank and staring up at nothing. His nose had been bitten off, leaving behind just a boney bud and his eats had been ripped apart. 

Luckily it was cold out, meaning that his body had not begun to rot just yet. It saved Eliane from having to take in a horrid stench of rotting flesh. 

“Why are we here, Mother?” Eliane dared to ask, her voice was soft. She didn’t want to anger mother right now. Who was looking at the body of the man like he had just murdered all three of them and was laughing in her face. She watched her breath in slowly and then let out her breath in a sigh. 

“I wanted to see how far he got.” Mother said before turning away and walking further into the woods. Eliane followed her, quickening her pace. Mother was walking with her full stride and she was walking fast, her legs were far longer than Eliane's, meaning Eliane would have to run to catch up. 

Eliane was now getting an idea of where they were going. They were walking to the edge of their grounds. Eliane couldn't remember exactly where the line was located, but Mother did. The only thing she knew about it was that their territory stretched far beyond the reach of the village. Deep into the forest.

Mother didn’t slow down, eventually, Eliane grew tired of having to run after her and partially shifted into her swarm of insects.

She flew idly beside Mother as she continued to step through the woods, her cloak billowing behind her like a cape. Eliane did a little corkscrew through the air. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Mother smiling fondly at her. 

“Why did you want to see how far he got?” Eliane asked. Mother opened her mouth to respond but then went silent. Her eyes widened and she straightened herself even more and looked around. Her neck snapping in the direction of a sound that Eliane didn’t hear. Eliane rose a little higher and looked around. She didn’t see anything. “Mother what are you-”

“Quiet!” Mother half hissed half barked at her, grabbing Eliane’s arm as if ready to pull her out of a line of fire. Eliane snapped her mouth shut. Mother’s head continued to rapidly swivel from one side to another. After a moment so tense, Eliane felt like it was choking her. Mother relaxed. “Perhaps it was just a fox.” She said softly. 

“I see them!” A voice yelled. Eliane jumped and Mother's grip on her wrist tightened to an almost painful degree. 

Mother grabbed Eliane’s arm as she pulled her under her. She ducked down just in time to dodge a bolt from a crossbow. It flew over her head with a high pitched whistle and then landed, embedding itself into a nearby tree. 

Eliane felt herself tensing as she heard a deep guttle growl rising from the depths of Mother’s throat. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little more serious than the others.

Chapter Seven

Mother’s long knife-like claws unleashed from the tips of her fingers while she was still holding onto Eliane. Her grip was tightening to an almost painful degree, her strong forearms dug into the space just under Eliane’s ribcage. Eliane was starting to get worried and she felt her panic beginning to grow as a deep growl rose from the depths of Mother’s throat. 

Her ear was pressed against her chest, and Eliane could feel the deep vibrations as they rolled through her body and settled into her bones. She squirmed a little harder trying to wriggle her way out of Mother’s grip. She felt Mother’s hold on her loosen until she was able to slip free of her arms and on her own two feet. Mother flashed her a, well hidden, apologetic look before turning her attention back over to the two hunters who were running up to challenge them. The moment her golden eyes shifted, Eliane could see them darken.

The hunters stopped running, dead leaves and snow was kicked up as they skidded to a halt. Eliane could hear their heavy breathing, she could see their chest heaving, and she could smell the sour and salty scent of sweat building on their faces. Her nose crinkled at the smell. A small smile tugged at her lips when the distinctive scent of fear began to mix into the bitter stench of sweat.

Eliane looked back up at mother when she heard her growl again. She could almost hear Mother’s raging thoughts as her eyes rapidly shifted back and forth from each hunter who stood only about twenty feet away from them. Thoughts of unbridled rage, thoughts of deep hatred. Eliane could almost see them slowly brewing in Mother’s mind, manifesting into the slowest and most painful ways she could kill these hunters. They were a part of the other’s hunting party, and they would have to pay the price for their comrade's stupidity. 

The hunters stepped closer, like a pack of wolves slowly encircling their prey, and Mother stepped forward putting her foot down in front of Eliane, partially shielding her. Eliane peeked from behind Mother at the hunters who were daring to stalk closer. One held a gun in their hand, it was a small pistol and the other was clutching a crossbow. 

It was clear that the crossbow wielder was the younger of the two, his face was still smooth and almost childlike. Eliane wondered how easily it would break if she were to bite into him. It would probably be like biting into a marshmallow. Younger humans always had more tender flesh. His eyes were wide, though he _tried_ to put on a brave face. And the scent of fear was much stronger from him than the senior hunter. The crossbow shook in his hands. 

The pistol-wielding man, he showed no signs of fear. Either he had been in this kind of situation enough times not to care at this point, or he was just really good at putting on a poker face. His subtly jaw was set hard, his eyes were narrowed into slits. Eliane could see a scar slashed across his cheek, causing there to be a dent in his skin. Mother’s eyes met his. 

“Get out. This is your only warning.” Mother snarled. One might wonder why Mother didn’t just attack them. The answer was simple. It was too risky. They were evenly matched, the chances of her failing or succeeding were fifty-fifty. Mother was not stupid. It didn’t matter how much bigger or stronger she was than these men. She wasn’t about to push her odds.

The man stood his ground and even regained his grip on his pistol. His eyes narrowed even more now they were just little slits that Eliane could see just the tiniest glimpse of light bouncing off of them. The wrinkled in his face seemed to deepen even more like they were embedding themselves further into his skin. It was a silent answer. He wasn’t going to leave anytime soon. Mother growled, her claws gleamed in the light. 

Eliane looked at the young hunter and smiled at him. She saw him gulp and felt a zing of satisfaction roll through her. His hands were shaking even more violently than they had been before. It was clear that this young hunter wasn’t ready to take on the big bad world of vampire huntsmanship and she was going to exploit that. The old man was stupid for bringing him here. An idea popped into her head, and her smile grew even more. Eliane looked at Mother who seemed to have read her mind and half nodded her head.

“Arraagh!” Eliane screamed, throwing her hands up and curling her fingers like they were claws before running at the young hunter. Like she had hoped he would do, he panicked and fired his crossbow in a wild direction trying to fend her off. Eliane ran at him. 

The senior hunter turned towards her painting his gun at her. But he had failed to notice that Mother had taken one plumbing step towards him. Before he knew what was going on Mother lifted him up with one arm and threw him at a tree. There was a loud sickening crack as what Eliane assumed was the man’s spine snapped in half like a toothpick. Mother turned away from him now that he was immobilized and out of the way. 

Mother stayed back and allowed Eliane to have her fun. Eliane looked back to see Mother looking at her with fondness. She ran at the young hunter who was tearing his way through the woods as fast as he could. She allowed her lower half to shift into a swarm. In this form, she was far faster than any human could run. She quickly caught up to him and grabbed a hold of him. Her fingernails dug into his skin and he cried in pain. He tried to pull away, he smacked at her hands trying to make her let him go. But it was no use. But she did have to give him credit for trying, it was adorable. 

But she soon grew tired of his thrashing and with a swift movement, she shifted into her swarm fully and engulfed him. All she could hear was his muffled screams as her insects tore into him. 

By the time she pulled away, he barely looked like a human. His skin was covered in cuts and bites. Blood ran freely from the new wounds on his flesh. He was now just a whimpering clump of flesh on the ground. But she hadn’t killed him, no there was much more in store for him. 

Eliane picked up his body and grabbed it like an empty sack of potatoes behind her. He tried to fight back, but his limbs were weak. All he could do was sniffle and cry.

  
  
  
  


Alcina looked fondly upon her daughter. She had taught her well. It was so wonderful to see that her little girl had grown up to be so powerful. She was so proud of her. Eliane looked up at her and beamed. But that look slowly faded into a look of horror. Alcina traced her eyes and turned to see what her daughter was looking at.

But she didn’t get a chance. There was the deafening sound of a gun going off that muffled her daughter screaming out for her. Her ears suddenly began to ring. And then indescribably pain shot through her arm. Her hand instinctively came up to cover the wound. It felt slick with blood. Alcina tried to hold in her scream of pain but she failed as it ripped from her lungs. She whipped around to see the old man had dragged his sad excuse of a body along the ground and managed to gather enough to grab his gun and pull the trigger. 

Alcina’s hand came down on the man. Her long claws digging into his back and piercing his heart. He let out a cry of pain, but it didn’t last long, his scream turned into gurgling before his head dropped to the ground. 

Alcina pulled her hand away, feeling the pain in her arm beginning to seep into her. She looked at her dress sleeve, it was slowly turning a deeper and deeper shade of red. Alcina staggered, her head was spinning. How much blood was she losing? She sat down and felt her eyelids begging to grow heavy. 

Just then Damara landed in front of her. A swarm of insects slowly morphed into a woman as she regained her shape. Her eyes widened and she ran towards Alcina.

“Mother!” She cried, she felt her daughter's hand grab a hold of her. She could hear them asking questions, they began to scream at each other, clearly, they were beginning to panic. Alcina tried to sit up, and comfort them. But she felt the dizziness take over. Alcina felt herself fall to the ground. And the world went black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a little trouble writing this because I didn't want Alcina to get injured.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kat's not all what she seems.

Chapter Eight

**One Hour Before**

Kat built another tower for Rosie, who knocked it down when it was a few blocks away from completion, with the biggest grin on her face. Kat smiled at her, at least she was having fun. Rosie thought it was absolutely hilarious. She could laugh wildly for a long time, sometimes she could laugh so hard she could fall back, and one time she started coughing uncontrollably. That scared her, she had begun to whimper between coughs. Kat had to calm her down, picking her up, gently patting her back, and rocking her.

When Rosie was finally calm again Kat set her back on the carpet and began to build another tower, to her surprise Rosie didn’t knock it down and instead began to help her. She could pick up the blocks, which were almost too big for her to grab, and would hand them to Kat. 

When the tower was completed Kat accidentally knocked it with her hand and it tumbled to the ground with a series of clunks. 

“Oopsies.” Kat said, picking the blocks up one by one. When she looked up she paused, Rosie seemed to have already mastered a death glare and was currently using that skill on her. Kat shifted back and forth and Rosie’s angry glare followed her. It would seem that Rosie didn’t want the tower to be destroyed this time. Kat, now slightly uncomfortable that a baby was giving her a death glare, began to rebuild the tower periodically looking up at the child, perhaps to make sure it didn’t suddenly lunge at her. 

Rosie seemed more content after her tower had been rebuilt. Afterward, she stopped paying attention to it. Rosie instead got down on her tiny hands and knees and crawled over to the teddy bear that was leaning against her crib. Kat had already found the bear kind of disturbing, to begin with. It was old and tattered, it looked like it once wore a shirt and pants or something of that nature, but it had been mostly destroyed. Only a few dull rags remained. And the bear itself wasn’t in a much better condition. Parts of its body were sewn back together with various colored threads. And one of its button eyes hung out of its head, dangling by a single thread. 

But its conduction didn’t seem to bother Rosie, she loved it regardless. She hugged her teddy bear close to her chest, burying her face into it. After a minute Kat could see why the bear had so many stitches. Rosie began to bite it. It wouldn’t have bothered Kat so much, babies bite things that's what they do, but what bothered her was how ferociously Rosie bit the stuffed animal. It was like she was trying to rip out a part of the bear with her mouth alone. But Kat didn’t stop her, she just watched in mild concern. 

“Mother found Beebear?” A voice said from behind Kat. Kat jumped and Rosie looked up. Rosie squealed and put her hands up into her air making a grabbing motion with her hands, her eyes brightened. Kat turned around to see a blonde woman standing in the doorway. Who was this woman? Lady Dimitrescu hadn’t introduced her to Kat before. But clearly, from her statement, she was one of the Lady’s daughters.

That was when Kat noticed that she had a strange dark red mark on her arm, it took Kat a moment to realize that they were scabs. The woman seemed to notice Kat looking at her and quickly hid them from sight. 

“What happened to your arm?” Kat asked. 

The woman sighed, “I fell on something and it punctured my arm.” She said after a minute. Kat looked at the woman’s face trying to figure out if she was telling the truth, the woman’s eyes narrowed. Her story just sounded off, at least for the injury that she had. But Kat decided not to push it, clearly, it was a sore subject. 

“Well, I hope you get better soon.” Kat said, turning away from her. Daniela didn't respond. She heard the clunk of shoes as the woman walked further into the room and with a shift of fabric as she sat down. “I'm sorry, I don’t think I got your name.” Kat said after a minute.

“Daniela.” The woman said. Her attention wasn’t on Kat, it was on her younger sister, who offered her the old tattered bear. Daniela smiled at her and gently took it from her using her hand to stand it on its two floppy feet. She made it walk around, and Rosie laughed. Kat smiled at her. Daniela looked at her from the corner of her eye and saw Kat watching her, her smile faded. She gave the bear back to Rosie.

Kat was left confused when Daniela got up and left the room. Rosie was back to playing with her stuffed toy.

After a while, Rosie dropped the bear and said something to Kat. “hungy.” Rosie said. Kat turned to look at her. 

“What was that?” Kat asked. 

“Hugy!” Rosie said a bit louder. After a few more attempts Kat finally figured out that she was trying to say  _ hungry _ . 

“You’re hungry?” Kat asked, pronouncing her words slowly so that it might help Rosie’s own pronunciation. 

“Hunry!” Rosie said excitedly. Kat sighed, good enough. She could work on it later. 

She scooped Rosie up into her arms and walked out of her room down the stairs. She paused for a moment trying to remember where Damara had led her. Eventually, Kat found the right direction after a few minutes of turning in a slow circle.

She walked into the dining room and saw a high chair seated next to the table. It would be a perfectly reasonable guess to say it was for Rosie. She set Rosie down and strapped her in. She looked around. Where did they keep the food? Kat wondered to herself raising her hand to her lips and began to bite at her fingernails. She pulled her finger away when she replied that she had stripped off all of the white. She had accidentally once bitten past the white part of her nail when she was chewing on it absentmindedly, and it had been painful.

She wiped the saliva on her finger on her pant leg and put her hand on her lips and looked around. That was when she noticed the plates sitting on the dining room table. There was something on them that had since dried and had become crusty. She slowly walked over to it. It was dark and almost brownish. 

Her mind jumped to the conclusion that it was blood. But that didn’t make any sense, why would there be blood on someone’s plate? And why so much? The only way someone could get this much blood is if they were to slit their wrist and hold it over the plate, which just wouldn’t be practical. It had to be some sort of sauce. Against all better judgment, she swiped her finger against it and put it in her mouth. The metallic tang flooded over her tongue, causing her eyes to open wide, it  _ was _ blood. Why the hell was there blood on here? 

Kat backed away from the plate on the table and tripped on nothing. She tumbled back, in her fall her hand smacked the sharp corner of the table. The wood dug into her skin, tearing a long slash that dribbled thick drops of bright red blood. Kat clenched her teeth to hold in her cry of pain. She grabbed her wrist looking at the damage done to her hand. She flexed her fingers and hissed in pain as a few more dribbles of blood came out. 

It wasn’t so bad. It would go away in a matter of minutes. Sure enough, the quiet snapping and squelching of flesh twisting and stretching filled the room as her cut was swallowed up by the new flesh on her hand and went away. She had been able to do that ever since the  _ incident _ , as she liked to call it. Kat stood up a little shake, but otherwise alright.

Just then there were footsteps, Kat jogged over to a small row of cabinets which she opened and stuck her head inside, trying to hide her little act of snooping. The room to the dining room opened and Daniela stuck her head inside. 

“What are you doing?” Daniela asked, her voice a perfect mix of perplexed and condescending. 

“It’s in the kitchen, through those doors.” Daniela said pointing at a doorway on the far side of the room. 

“Oh!” Kat said laughing, she felt silly. She got up and began to walk towards the door. She could feel Daniela’s eyes on her. She felt herself tense, but kept walking, before she entered the kitchen and turned around and said, “Thank you! Did you need something from here?” Kat asked.

“Yes, but I completely forgot.” Daniela said, shrugging and with that, she pulled out of the dining room closing the door behind her with a soft click. 

Suddenly there was a loud bang, and a heavy thump of feet pounding against the floorboards. Kat heard heavy breathing. And then a loud exclamation.

“Mother!” It sounded like Daniela. What was going on? “What happened?” It sounded like Daniela again. 

“No time!” Said another voice. Eliane, maybe? Or perhaps Damara? “Go call Uncle H!” She said. 

There were more heavy footsteps, they grew quieter and quieter as the people grew further and further away. Kat wanted to see what happened but she needed to take care of Rosie. Rosie looked at her with wide eyes from her high chair. Kat disappeared into the kitchen for a moment and came out a second later with a small container of baby food. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uncle H, I wonder who that could be? eheheheheh


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Hopefully, Eliane knew where she was going because Damara was practically blinded by her own tears. No matter how hard she tried to blink them away there were already more in their place ready to spill over down her cheeks. She’s not entirely sure how they alone managed to pick Mother up by her under-arms and feet and carry her back to the castle, it was probably the adrenaline rushing through their systems and fogging their brains with panic.

The wind whipped and whispered in Damara’s ears whispering mockingly ‘faster, faster, faster!’ as she and Eliane flew through the air, her bugs buzzed loudly, and nervously. It made sense they were a part of her. They flew around her head, landing occasionally but never allowing themselves to stand still for too long. They were like a murder of crows circling their prey waiting for it to die so they could tear into it. Damara shut her thoughts out of her mind as they were starting to make her feel sick with fear. 

Eliane dipped lower, Damara followed her, she was still blinded by her tears. She looked down at Mother’s injury and felt a fresh wave of hot tears roll down her cheeks. She bit her lip and tried to keep the whimper accompanying it from coming out. The wound on Mother’s arm was still bleeding, large drops of blood were running down soaking into the fabric before dripping off of the tip of her elbow. Damara had ripped a part off of her dress, she loved that dress but Mother was more important, to wrap around Mother’s arm trying to stop the bleeding. The bleeding should have stopped by now. Damara thought. Why hadn’t it stopped bleeding? Damara felt panic settle into her stomach squirming and wriggling like she just ate a live creature and it was desperately trying to claw its way out of her. 

Damara shook her head trying to stop herself from suffocating any thought of reason she had left with her panic. She needed to stay calm, for Mother’s sake, and her own. Damara shifted Mother in her grasp trying to regain her hold under her arms. Her arms ached and begged for a break but she couldn’t do that, not yet. Mother’s head lolled to the side swaying on her shoulders like a tree branch that had bared too much fruit. Her eyes partially opened for a split second and she mumbled something inaudible and slurred as she lifted her head weakly, before they fluttered closed again. 

When they got to the castle, they burst through the doors not even bothering to shut them. They ran as fast as they could while holding Mother. Despite Damara’s newfound strength, Mother was still heavy. And her limpness had turned her into a dead weight. Damara could feel her slipping. She gripped tighter and hiked Mother up higher.

They were making their way to Mother’s room before Daniela stepped out of the dining room. Her eyes widened with shock. 

“Mother!” Daniela explained and ran towards the unconscious and limp women in Damara’s grasp. Her hand lightly brushed against her injured arm, Damara could see blood transfer onto Daniela’s fingertips. Daniela’s pale face grew even paler. “What happened?” Daniela asked, her voice sounded more like a demand, but Damara could see the fear welling into her eyes. Damara was about to explain to her, but Eliane interrupted her.

“No time!” Eliane yelled, craning her neck to look back at both of her sisters. Damara could see tears streaks on her face as well, they glittered in the faint light that seemed through the windows. “Go call uncle H!” Eliane said and began to run again.

Damara had no choice but to follow. 

  
  
  
  


Daniela had never run so fast before as she had now. Her heart was pounding, not only from the running but by the fear that had begun to settle into her ever since she had heard the door slam open. 

She knew where Mother’s office was, under any other circumstance she wasn’t allowed in there, the door was never locked but if Mother found out that you had snooped, and she  _ always _ found out, the amount of trouble that you would get in would be  _ substantial _ . It was the only thing that Mother didn’t explain to them when they asked questions about it, she would give a vague answer and that would be the end of it. Mother wasn’t one to yell. When she was angry it was easy to tell because she went quiet and her face would become stoney. But the one time that Daniela  _ had _ snuck into the room and picked up the phone was the only time that Mother had yelled at her.

And it had been terrifying to watch someone who was usually so kind and gentle to her explode like that. From Daniela’s memory, the outburst seemed to be mostly out of fear, and at the time Daniela didn’t know why. She had been too scared to process what was exactly going on. Mother hadn’t even escalated from a point of calmness to rage, she just exploded the moment she saw Daniela sitting on the small chair in front of the old phone. Daniela shuttered as she ran remembering Mother’s voice that sharp “what the  _ fuck _ are you doing?” it was also the only time Mother had used strong language around her. She had been so startled that she couldn’t speak, and when Mother asked again she wasn’t any calmer, in fact, she bellowed. Daniela had been reaching for the phone when Mother came in. 

Mother had asked if she had picked up the phone, Daniela had shaken her head. That seemed to calm Mother slightly, but only a little. Mother had told her to get out, Daniela did, and she never went back in until today. 

The door creaked open as Daniela opened it. She found the urge to sneak. She walked into the room and closed it behind her, wincing when the sound of the door closing seemed too loud. The room was exactly like she had remembered it, a vanity, a plush stool to sit on, not much else was in the room. And sitting on the vanity was an old phone. Daniela walked over to it and found a note scribbled down on a torn piece of parchment paper, written in scribbled cursive. She could just barely make out the numbers. That was unusual for Mother to write so messily. 

At the top, there were two Ms one was uppercase M and the other a lowercase M, next to that there was a number scribbled down next to it. And then below that there was an H, Daniela looked at the other letter there were no other Hs. Daniela looked at the number and picked up the phone, holding it to her ear. The dial tone hummed while the types in the numbers and then waited. 

For a moment no one picked up, then there was a soft burst of static and a tired, gravely, voice spoke over the line. They sounded tired like they just woke up. 

“Alci, what do you want?” Uncle Heisenberg asked as he sniffed.

“Uncle…” Daniela said, her voice was weaker than she had intended it to be. And it cracked, Daniela cleared her voice, 

“Dani? I thought you weren’t allowed in here.” He said, his voice suddenly changed, he sounded more awake. 

“I”m not.” Daniela said. 

“What happened?” Uncle Heisenberg asked.

“It's Mother, she’s hurt.” Daniela said looking at the blood that was beginning to dry on her fingertips. 

“How so?” Uncle asked. 

“She’s been shot.” Daniela said, swallowing the lump in her throat.

“I thought bullets didn’t harm her.” Uncle Heisenberg said, his voice was mostly indifferent but Daniela could hear the tiniest bit of concern beginning to creep into it. 

“Well, these did- just- just get your ass over here, now!” Daniela started stammering, and in turn, was starting to make herself angry, and slammed the phone back into its holder, and ran out of the room to Mother’s room. 

  
  
  
  


“Daniela? Daniela!” Heisenberg yelled over the line, but it had gone silent.

He used the underground passages that linked both of their manors together. Not many people knew about them, he wasn’t even sure that  _ Daniela _ knew about them and she was someone who would have loved to use them to sneak around more often. It was probably best that she didn’t know about them. 

He climbed up the rusted and old latter that led to the world above him. He exited the little trap door and closed it softly. He was in the dungeons now. No matter how many times he came in here, it always smelled the same. Like rotting flesh and blood.

He ran up the stairs almost tripping over them in the dark and threw the doors open. He turned and saw the doors were wide open and quickly walked over and shut them quickly. No one wanted any strangers coming in here.

He ran as fast as he could his trench coat whipping behind him and his boot thundering against the wooden floor. She was probably in her room. Could he remember where it was? He turned a few corners and ran down a few hallways, they all looked familiar, he was fairly certain he was getting close. 

He could hear muffled voices from behind a door as he turned. Bingo. He opened the door and the yelling instantly filled his ears. He reeled back. 

“It’s just getting worse.” Eliane half cried and half sobbed with her hand on either side of her head. “What are we going to do?” She asked. 

“She won’t stop bleeding.” Damara said she was the closest to Alcina. There were bloody rags all over the floor, all soaked in blood. Damara was pressing a new one into her mother’s arm but the effect seemed to be the same. 

It suddenly stopped when all eyes landed on him. There was no sound except for the occasional sniffle. He didn’t bother with a greeting he just let himself in. 

He saw his sister, she had been laid on her bed, her white blankets and sheet soaking in her blood. He walked over to her, still silent, and looked at her arm. It looked as if something was eating away at it. Like her flesh had simply melted. He saw the bullet, lodged in her bone. He reached forward. All of the daughter’s eyes were boring in him as if they expected him to harm his own sister. He pulled it out and looked at it. 

It was shaped funny, it was a metal body but there was a glass capsule on the top that was shattered. His blood ran cold for a moment, he felt a shiver run up his spine, like someone had just poured ice water down it. He sniffed it. Other than the smell of blood he picked up on something else, something that burned the inside of his nose. 

_ Vinea Periculus _ . The smell was unmistakable. The planet contained an enzyme that broke down the proteins of whatever virus flowed through their veins and had worked itself into their very DNA. It was literally eating away at the cells in her arm. The only antidote was a plant called  _ Vinea Sanitatemus _ . Which contained an acid that broke down the enzyme. They had injected Viena Periculus into her bloodstream apparently, it was fast-acting as well. 

“Does Alcina have any Vinea Sanitatemus?” He asked. The girls looked at him with tearful and confused faces. He sighed “Midnight’s Kiss?” He asked, calling them by their shorter and more well-known name. 

Two of the girls still looked confused but Damara nodded. “Yes, she has a couple around the place, here’s one.” Damara said, turning around and picking up and handing it to him. He twisted off more than a few of its midnight blue leaves. Damara made a noise of protest but after he gave her a stern look she begrudgingly became silent.

“I need someone to take me some boiling water, where’s your kitchen?” He asked. The girls didn’t move, seemingly to have turned into statues. And then they suddenly began to move. Eliane turned and ran out of the room. He followed her. 

They ran down into the dining room where he saw a baby and a strange woman standing there who gave him a wide-eyed frightened look. He said nothing and ran past her. He ran into the kitchen after Eliane. 

She pulled down a metal kettle and filled it with water putting it on the stove to heat. It felt like hours before it began to whistle. 

He put some of the leaves into his mouth and chewed. Eliane gave him the strangest look. He rummaged around in the kitchen until he found a little teapot and spat the chewed up leaves into it. He poured the boiling water into the pot. 

“Wait, you're not going to make her drink, are you?” Eliane asked. He didn’t answer, he just grabbed a cup and ran back to her room. “Hey!” Eliane yelled after him. He put more leave into his mouth and chewed them into a paste. 

He burst back into the room. Damara and Daniela were sitting at the foot of their bed with rather hopeless expressions on their face. He poured the water-leaf mixture into the little cup. “She needs to drink this.”

“What is it going to do?” Daniela asked, taking the cup from him. 

“It’s going to stabilize her.” He said curly. Daniela gave him a look that said she found him less than trustworthy but did what he had asked anyway. She walked over to her mother and with the help of Damara she was able to prop her head up and bring the cup to her lips. She poured the steaming liquid into her mother’s mouth. She didn’t pull away until the cup was empty and she saw her mother’s throat bob to indicate that she had swallowed it.

Eliane entered the room a moment later, out of breath. She said nothing but glared at Heisenberg. Damara walked over to Alcina’s side and pressed another cloth to her mother’s arm. 

“Hey,” She said a small smile forming on her face. The rag had a few spots of blood on it yet it was not nearly as soaked as the ones that littered the floor. “The bleeding stopped.”

  
  
  
  


When Alcina woke it was dark out again. Her arm hurt and everything was sore. How long had she been out? Why did she feel so light-headed?

She noticed a figure sitting next to her, in a rickety wooden chair, a rough and calloused hand was tightly gripping hers. And even in his sleep, her brother absently brushed her knuckles with his thumb. 

She was surprised that he was here. Their relationship was a very questionable one. Sometimes they would go days, weeks, months, sometimes it was even years as complete strangers to one another, never interacting and most days not even sparing a thought of each other. It was rocky at best, dysfunctional at worst. There were days they couldn’t even be in the same room as each other without getting into a fight. 

And yet here he was, sitting by her bedside with his head pressed against the mattress, breathing deeply, holding her hand.

Alcina set her head back on her pillows and closed her eyes once more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made up the planets, I literally translated Dangerous Vine and Healing Vine into Latin on google translate and then added an -us on the end of it.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you thought Joseph was bad wait will you meet his older brother, Michel.

Chapter Ten

Timothy woke up feeling, sore, cold, and oddly hollow. Like a piece of him was missing. He had ventured out here with Elijah looking for his brother who had walked off a week prior, he knew that Joseph was dead, they all did, but it never hurt to try. All he managed to do was to come face to face with his murderers. 

It was dark out now, but Timothy had a strange sense that midnight had long passed. The sky was not nearly as dark as it had been on nights when he had stayed up a little later. 

He turned over with a huff of effort, his limbs felt weak and shaky like they were made out of string. He felt the loose dirt and leaves shift under his stinging palms. The snow had melted underneath him and had melted into his clothes drenching his shirt and pants in water, it stuck to his body at odd angles, and it made his skin feel clammy, and the cold was beginning to numb him, but he couldn’t bring himself to care that much. He was in enough pain as it was, what was a little more? He looked up and saw a body laying on the ground face down, it was too hard to see who it was right away. All he could make out was a head full of dark hair. Slowly he was able to pull himself to his feet and crawled towards it. 

He hoped that it was that one of those scary women, particularly the one who had attacked him, he shuddered at the thought of all of her insects crawling on his skin and some even burrowing into it. But deep down he knew it wasn’t true. It was Eli laying face down in the dirt like an abandoned doll. He dragged himself across the ground, his legs kicking uselessly behind him, he only _just_ managed to get his legs to work a few feet away from the body. He finally got to it and collapsed onto the ground. His face hit the cool earth and the cold from the snow seeped into the skin of his face. He managed to turn the body over, even with his arms feeling like they were made out of rubber.

No matter how prepared for seeing Eli’s blank face with eyes wide open staring at nothing, Timothy still wailed up at the cloud-filled night sky. It echoed back at him like it was mocking him. Damn those monsters! They had taken his brother from him and now they had taken his mentor too. He couldn’t stop the hot tears from welling into his eyes and spilling down his cheeks as well as the sharp sobs that wracked his body. He howled in anguish again, like a wolf howling at the moon. But there was no moon tonight, there hadn’t been one for a while. 

He tried to wipe his tears away as they sat on his cheeks, cooling. But more still came, he laid next to the corps of his mentor for what felt like hours. Eventually, his sobs had begun to die down into soft whimpering, the tears had begun to stop, probably because he had cried them all away, there were no more tears left to shed.

Finally, he managed to suck in a shaky breath and forced himself to his feet. He needed to get back to camp no matter how much he didn’t want to leave Elijah behind to rot in the woods. But he had very little choice; he was not strong enough to carry a human body. He would be one day, but not today. His legs threatened to give out from underneath him, his knees wobbling like a newborn fawn’s as they took their first shaky steps. He managed to stumble over to a tree and gain himself balance against it. He leaned against the tree like it was an old friend offering him a shoulder to cry on.

He gained his balance and began to make his slow walk back to the hunter’s camp.

  
  
  
  


By the time he got back to camp, the sun had already begun to rise over the horizon. An array of pinks and yellows filled the sky. He could see the camp, there were a few tents that had been set up and he could see smoke rising up from a fire that was being tended to by one of their members. Their _remaining_ member, he thought bitterly to himself. 

They had set up in a clear-ish spot that they had found while they were trekking through the woods trying to get to the castle without going through the village. He stepped into the clearing and the person tending the fire looked up, before they even looked up to see who had entered the camp’s vicinity they picked up a gun and pointed it at him. 

It was Lilyanne, a member they had picked up while making their way to Romania. She seemed nice enough. She was tall, not as tall as the women who had attacked him, but tall. Her dark hair was slightly messy, and her brown eyes were slightly bleary. Timothy couldn’t help but wonder if she stayed up all night. 

“There you are!” Lilyanne said running towards him. “Where’s Elijah?” She asked looking around. Timothy felt a lump growing in his throat, it felt like it had clogged his throat and stopped his words from coming out.

“He-” Timothy said, swallowing thickly. “He’s dead.” He managed to choke out. “They killed him.” He said feeling his lip begin to tremble, his eyes began to sting as tears filled them once again.

“Timothy!” A voice called, before that Timothy had heard a sound of fabric shifting as someone exited a tent. “Did you find anything?” The voice asked, there was no trace of sympathy or concern in their voice. It was a voice that Timothy knew well. Michel was his older brother and leader of the ground ever since dad had been killed in action. Mom was long dead before that. “Where is Elijah?” Michel asked. 

Timothy squared his shoulders as he turned to face his brother. “He’s dead. They killed him.” He said swallowing the lump in his throat, tears began to well in his eyes again and he sniffed. Before Timothy knew what was going on he felt the sharp pain of the back of a hand meeting his cheek. He stumbled back clutching his face. 

“Man up.” Michel said gruffly. “You’re a man, men don’t cry.” Michel growled, looking down at his brother, hunched over clutching his face like he was a piece of scum that he had just stepped in. “Did you find anything?” Michel asked through his teeth, his voice turning back to normal as if nothing had happened and nothing was wrong.

“Their matriarch is weakened.” Timothy said when he stood up, his face still stung and tingled. He wanted to glare at his brother so badly, but that would only anger Michel. 

“Good.” Michel said he put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “You are proving to not be as useless as you initially seemed when you first insisted you join.” He said his voice warmly, but his words were condescending. “Which is good now that you have cost me our best attacker.” His words stung like a whip snapping against his back. Timothy said nothing to his brother, but he _wanted_ to, he felt his hands curling into fists. Confrontation would get him another slap, maybe even a punch. It was best if he kept quiet. 

Timothy nodded as Michel turned away and walked over to the fire, sitting down at one of the foldable seats they had brought. Lilyanne gave him a pitied look before sitting back down. 

  
  
  
  


There was a soft knock on Alcina’s door. She looked up from the book she was reading. “Come in.” She said with a slight question. Heisenberg had been periodically checking up on her but he didn’t usually knock. He just stuck his head in, saw she was awake, and then went away.

The knob turned slowly as if unsure if the person on the other side wanted to enter. To her surprise, it was not one of her older daughters or her brother but instead the nanny and Rosie. Kat shut the door behind her, quietly as if she was trying to creep inside. 

Rosie squirmed in Kat’s arms making grabber hands at Alcina who smiled at her. “Mama!” She said excitedly. 

“Good afternoon Ms. Collins.” Alcina said marking her page and closing her book. She set it by the small stand next to the table. 

“I hope I’m not being too invasive, she just kept asking for you and I saw no harm in it.” Kat said, Alcina looked at her face. She could tell that Kat wasn’t telling the whole truth, the part she was telling Alcina about might have been true, but she seemed to be withholding something from her as well. 

Alcina narrowed her eyes slightly, not sure if she should be worried about Kat. But Kat seemed to have noticed Alcina’s look and spit out the rest of the truth, rather quickly. “And I guess I was using it as an opportunity to see if you were alright.” She said pushing a lock of hair behind her left ear. 

“How kind of you.” Alcina said. Kat walked over and set Rosie who was becoming more and more animated as the minutes passed. She sat the squirming child next to Alcina. Rosie didn’t even wait for Alcina to pick her up; she just crawled over to her and tried to climb into her lap. Alcina winced as Rosie’s sharp knee dug into her waist. She picked the girl up and set her down. 

“I can-” Kat said pointing both of her thumbs at the door behind her. “-go if, you want me too.” She said awkwardly. She turned to walk for the door before Alcina could answer. 

“You may stay.” Alcina said. “Come sit.” She said pointing to the rickety wooden chair that her brother had been sitting in the night before. Kat turned around and made short little steps toward it and sat down slowly. 

The silence between them was thick and heavy and uncomfortable, but gradually she grew more used to the silence in Kat’s presents. Alcina couldn’t help but look at her every few seconds. 

Kat, on the other hand, seemed to not be able to look at her at all. Instead, she looked at her hands which she had in her lap, and would occasionally look up. They twisted together and then untangled only to twist together in a different configuration. The times that Kat did look at her she glanced away quickly as if trying to pretend she wasn’t. 

Alcina looked over her, for some reason the first word that came to her mind when she looked at Kat was _mouse_ . Perhaps it was because she was small. Which wasn’t a hard feat to accomplish, technically her daughters were _small_ compared to her, but Kat was even smaller than them. Perhaps it was Kat’s hair that reminded her of mouse, there was a kind of neat unkemptness about it. Her hair was curly and not the neat kind of curls that Alcina had, her short hair seemed to go in every which direction. It curled under her chin and some even seemed to defy gravity. 

Kat pushed her glasses up her nose, the lenses were shaped in perfect circles. They always seemed to be slipping down to the tip of her nose, every time Alcina was looking at her she was pushing them back up to the bridge of her nose. 

Alcina was slightly startled when Rosie grabbed her face with slightly sticky hands. She chuckled and took her little hands off of her face holding each one between her forefingers and thumbs. Her hands were so big that Rosie could barely wrap her hand around her thumb. 

When Alcina looked up she noticed that Kat was staring at her her eyes seemed to be glossy. Alcina looked at Kat until the small woman noticed Alcina had noticed her, she smiled at her. Kat startled and Alcina swore she saw some color flood into her face. And there was a faint smell that accompanied her now, Alcina didn't know what it was, but it was sweet. And she liked it. 

Kat looked away as if trying to pretend she hadn’t been staring for the past few minutes. Her face was scrunched up like she was trying to solve a difficult math equation. Alcina thought it was cute, and a deep chuckle rose up from through her chest. Kat’s face seemed to color a little more. 

Just then the door opened Heisenberg, stuck his head in. He saw that Kat was in the room with Alcina and froze for a moment before pulling back out and closing the door slowly. When Alcina looked back at Kat, her face had turned back to normal. The sweet aroma that had been coming from her was also now gone. So she _had_ been blushing. Alcina smirked to herself. Did Kat really think she didn’t notice? Why was this woman so damn cute? 

“Who is that?” Kat asked slowly. “I saw him yesterday. He was running around like crazy.”

“He’s my brother.” Alcina said. 

“Oh.” Was all Kat said before she grew quiet again and looked back down at her hands. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The gay has arrived!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

The strange man in the trench coat closed the door behind him with a soft click. But not before he eyed Kat suspiciously when Lady Dimitrescu was distracted keeping Rosie from falling forwards on her face, it was like he expected her to kill Lady Dimitrescu at any moment. Kat watched him slip out of the room until he was gone. But even after the door closed she still stared at the wall. She still thought he looked slightly scruffy. Originally she thought it was because of the stress of the commotion from yesterday, but perhaps it was just his normal look. 

The day before Kat had seen him running into the dining room like a mad-man on crack, with a crazed look in his eye, and into the kitchen, with Eliane following shortly behind him. Obviously, they knew him, the Dimitrescus didn’t seem like the kind of people who usually liked to rely on strangers. But she wasn’t exactly sure how he fit in, did he live here? She hadn’t seen him until yesterday, so probably not. Was he a relative? Probably. 

When he came back out of the kitchen he didn’t spare Kat a second glance, something she was grateful for she wasn’t sure she wanted him near her. But Eliane had stopped to tell Kat to continue her day as if nothing was wrong. Not exactly what Eliane had said, what she had said was a much longer way of saying ‘it’s none of your business, so don’t go sneaking around’ but in a much kinder tone, and it was almost like she was trying to dance around her point.

Kat had been grateful for the little intrusion it gave her a moment to put her mind onto something else and regather herself and allow her to calm down for a moment. Now she could focus on something other than Lady Dimitrescu. And her hands. That looked like they could crush her head with one little squeeze, or arms that looked like they could pin her down without much effort. Kat pushed the thoughts out of her head feeling the heat return to her face. She tried to prevent herself from pursing her lips in mild self-embarrassment. This was no way to be thinking. Lady Dimitrescu had hired her to take care of her child, and she had only known her for four days.  _ Four _ ! God, what was wrong with her?

“Who is that?” Kat asked. Still trying to pull her focus to something else. “I saw him running around like crazy.” 

“He’s my-” Kat was already finishing the sentence for her in her head. For some reason the first thing that popped into it was husband. And for a moment she felt a little bit of ease, now she had more of a reason to stop herself from wanting this woman to “-Brother.” Shit. Well, that went out the window. 

“Oh.” Kat said. She went quiet for a while looking down at her fingers as they tangled together and untangled. She picked at her nails. She heard Lady Dimitrescu chuckle again, the sound filled Kat with a strange almost fuzzy kind of warmth. she looked up to see her prying her daughter’s tiny hands off of her face.

“Rosie, dear, my eyebrows are attached to my face.” She said lightly tapping her daughter’s little nose with the tip of her finger. To Kat’s slight amusement and mild shock Rosie snapped at Lady Dimitrescu’s finger, who just chuckled and wiggled it at her like it was a game. Rosie giggled along with her and smiled up at her with bright eyes. Lady Dimitrescu smiled at her daughter. 

Rosie then yawned. “Nih nih.” She said. Rosie laid her head on Lady Dimitrescu’s chest. Her eyelids began to droop. Kat leaned forward ready to scoop Rosie up to take her to her crib, just as Lady Dimitrescu lifted her own to cradle Rosie against her chest. 

Their hands met, Kat’s got to Rosie last and her hands landed on top of Lady Dimitrescu’s. Her hands were cold and yet soft- Kat pulled her hands away quickly as if she had just been burned. The heat in her face was almost as intense as twin suns. 

Lady Dimitrescu gave her a concerned look, she too had removed her hands from Rosie probably expecting Kat to take her. They both moved to Rosie again before stopping. Their eyes met and locked for a moment. Kat opened and closed her mouth trying to say something, but nothing came out and she looked like a fish out of water. 

“Sorry about that.” Kat finally managed to stammer out a small too wide smile on her face and a forced laugh. She was probably red as a cherry. She just wanted to sink into the floor and disappear forever. They moved again this time Kat got to her first and Lady Dimitrescu dropped her arm, but Kat still pulled back letting out an awkward laugh. Lady Dimitrescu had an amused expression on her face that made Kat feel even more embarrassed. 

Kat stood up. “I can take her to her room.” Lady Dimitrescu lifted her daughter and gently handed her back to Kat. Their hands brushed against each other once again, and Kat swore she saw Lady’s Dimitrescu’s eyes flash. Kat turned to leave before she left she turned around. “It’s good to see that you're doing better.” She said, inwardly kicking herself for not just getting out of them, and then left. She could feel Lady Dimitrescu’s eyes boring into her back until she closed the door behind her with a soft thunk. Rosie laid limp on her shoulder breathing slowly.

When she looked up she saw that the man, Lady Dimitrescu’s brother was still standing outside of the room. Kat jumped upon seeing him, not expecting anyone to be there. Rosie lifted her head, her soft yellow hair brushing against the underside of Kat’s chin before it was set back down again seemingly undisturbed.

“Oh, hello, ‘cuse me.” She said letting out a little laugh, mostly from her little startle. She pushed past him and partially ran down the hall wanting to be as far away as possible.

  
  
  
  


Kat set Rosie down in her crib, for a moment Kat thought that she was going to wake up. She shifted and lightly kicked her left leg. But she stayed asleep, Kat let out a little breath of relief. She pulled the small blanket up over Rosie’s tiny body and left the room. Tip-toeing so that she didn’t wake her. She shut the door quietly behind her, and her stomach growled.

She went downstairs and wandered into the kitchen. She walked around the counter until she was at the pantry. She opened it, there was baby food on some shelves, Kat noted that they seemed to be getting low. On another, there was a jar of peanut butter. Kat reached for it, maybe she could cut up an apple and eat it with it. Sure that seemed like a reasonable snack. 

Kat got the peanut butter and shut the door behind her. There was another small bowl of fruit set out on the counter. It had more apples, just apples. She looked around, this place was spotless, it almost looked like it was never used. 

Kat picked up an apple and knelt down, sifting through the cabinets until she found a cutting board. She grabbed a knife from the block and cut the apple in half. 

Kat wouldn’t call herself a picky eater, but she didn’t like to eat the apple’s core. She picked up the apple half into a quarter and picked up one into her hand, preparing to cut out the middle. Just then someone came through the door. Kat startled the knife slipped and cup into her hand. 

She swore softly and dropped the knife onto the counter with a loud clang, her knife bounced rattling against the countertop. She grabbed her hand. There was a gash in her thumb. She shook her hand as the cut began to sting. She turned around to look at who had come in feeling a little bit of annoyance towards them. She saw it was Daniela.

She looked down at her hand as a small drop of blood ran down the heel of her palm. 

“Did you cut yourself?” The taller woman asked from across the room. Kat noticed her tone sounded almost eager. Kat felt a surge of panic as the woman stepped closer. 

“No.” Kat lied. Her voice was too quick but she didn’t care. She looked down at her hand, her flesh quivered as it began to rapidly heal. Her flesh squelched quietly. Kat put her other hand on top of her injured one trying to muffle the sound. The feeling of her own flesh writing under her hand felt weird, like thousands of insects crawling under her skin. Her hand felt tingly as new cells were forming and growing over her fresh cut. 

By the time Daniela had gotten around the counter and to Kat, the cut had healed. Kat quickly took her hand away and picked up the knife again. She looked up at Daniela when she got there. Kat wasn’t sure if she was irritated or if that was just her normal face. She decided it was just her normal face, seeing as Kat hadn’t done anything to warrant her anger.

“What are you doing?” Daniela asked, her tone was condescending and almost mocking, Daniela raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms. 

“I’m cutting up an apple. Want one?” Kat asked holding a quarter out to Daniela who wrinkled her nose at it and back away like it was a dirty sock left out in the rain for a week. “I’ll take that as a no.” Kat said. She put it down and sliced the other half and picked shifted them to the corner of her cutting board. She cut out the core of the apple and set the quarter down. She was careful not to let the knife slip again. The last time someone had seen what she could do, she lost her job. She really didn’t want to lose this one too. She couldn’t. 

Daniela turned away, muttering something to herself that Kat barely was able to catch. “I swore I smelled blood.” And then Kat was left alone again. 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

“I hate this fuckin’ terrain.” Justin said as he stepped on a stick, deliberately snapping it in half by stepping on it. There was a loud crack that echoed. He kicked one half to the side, with a frustrated grumble. “Of all places that had to build on the top of a hill.” He complained, kicking some leaves around. He let out a roar of anger when his foot landed in a hole in the ground covered up by a layer of leaves. Timothy suppressed his smile of satisfaction when Justin cursed. 

“Well it’s harder to get up a hill, so it makes sense.” Timothy said, rolling his eyes, he tried to keep the annoyed tone out of his voice. He knew his tone was going to get him into trouble with Justin, regardless if he hid it or not. Unlike Michel when Justin was mad he used his fists. He used his fists to solve everything, that was how he worked. If there was a problem in his way, he would punch it until it wasn’t a problem. Or at least his problem. 

“No one asked you, you little shit.” Justin said in his thick southern accent, and when he got mad his accent would get even thicker, Timothy always found it funny. If Michel was here, he would have smacked Justin on the side of his head. But he wasn’t there, meaning that Justin could get away with it. He was Michel’s friend (though their relationship was starting to get a little rocky). They had been attached at the hip since they were in middle school. And Timothy hated him as much as he hated his older brother. If not more. 

There were days that Timothy wished he had to confidence to tell him to fuck off, but no matter how much Timothy hated him, he was a good huntsman, there was no doubt about that. He could accurately shoot a target that was more than forty feet away from him. There were days that Timothy couldn’t even hit the target from ten feet. Justin never let him forget that. That was half the reason why Joseph had left in the first place because Justin didn’t know when to shut up. After Joseph’s death, Timothy found that he could have an even deeper hatred for this man than he thought was possible. 

“Could you just give him a break?” Lilyanne asked, Timothy felt a wave of gratefulness. Her eyes flashed when she turned to glare at Justin. Justin gave her a smile, the same smile he would use at seedy bars trying to get random girls to come back with him to his flat. It never worked and they always ignored him. Just like every other girl she rolled her eyes and huffed, annoyed. “Fuck off, Justin.” Lilyanne said. 

Justin huffed crossing his arms and kicking the side of a tree. “Little bitch, doesn’t know what’s good for her.” He growled under his breath just loud enough for Timothy to hear. He wasn’t sure if Lilyanne had heard him and just decided to ignore him, or if Lilyanne was blissfully unaware of his insults towards her. The way her molten glare flickered over to Justin made Timothy think that she had heard him. 

They were still a ways away from the castle and it was starting to get dark. That meant those monsters were going to come out again. Timothy felt a little pang of fear rush through him as he shifted the crossbow in his hands. He could feel his fingers grow sweaty and clammy. He tried to steady himself in front of Justin, not wanting to be ridiculed. But the images of Elijah’s bloodied corps resurfaced in his head. He stifled a fearful gasp. Now it wasn’t just his fingers that were shaking it was also his hand and his weapon. Justin glanced down at him and a small smirk grew on his face. Timothy inwardly groaned and braced himself.

“Are you scared, little Timmy?” Justin asked, he cooed his voice mockingly. Timothy hated that name.

“Justin, leave him alone.” Lilyanne sighed.

“Why? He chose this job, he should expect things like this.” Justin said, his tone made it sound like he was trying to justify his words, but Timothy knew they were all fake. He just wanted to ridicule him. Timothy felt his hands clenched into fists, and his cheeks heated up with embarrassment. 

“Do you have any sympathy, he just lost his brother and his mentor a week apart.” Lilyanne said.

“Things like that happen all the time, he should get used to it now!” Justin said crossing his arms and holding his head up higher so he would appear taller than Lilyanne.

“You are using this as an excuse to be unnecessarily cruel.” Lilyanne argued back. Suddenly Timothy heard the faint sound of buzzing. He felt his blood freeze to ice and his heart drop to his feet.

“You’re being overdramatic.” Justin said, rolling his eyes. 

“Shut up I hear something.” Timothy said. For a moment Lilyanne and Justin look at him with mild shock before Justin’s look melts into annoyance. They got silent and listened closely. Timothy could hear the sound of insects buzzing, the sound was growing a little louder as each moment passed. Timothy could feel his heart rate growing faster and faster. Justin didn’t seem to care, he just rolled his eyes and scoffed. Lilyanne just looked confused. 

“It’s just the bugs.” Justin said, giving Timothy a look like he was the dumbest person on earth. Timothy felt something in his snap, like a flood gate opening up. 

“The bugs aren’t out in winter, you dumbass.” He snarked. Justin’s eyes flashed with rage. Before Timothy knew what had happened Justin charged at him and slammed his finger into his nose. Timothy stumbled back, he couldn’t recover when Justin did it again. 

His ears rang and he could distinctly hear Lilyanne’s voice, shrill and frantic, “Justin, that’s enough!” She ran towards him trying to pull him back but he shoved her with one swipe of her hand and she fell to the side. She quickly pushed herself back onto her feet, but she seemed to hesitate for a moment. 

Suddenly there was screaming and then he saw a figure probably Justin running past him. He saw Lilyanne run towards him but an arm reached out and grabbed her. He could hear his voice. “Let go of me, we need to save him!” 

“There's no time, leave him, he’s as good as dead.” Justin said, his voice was full of panic. What a coward. Timothy didn’t have time to react, as stars danced in his vision when a shadowy figure stood over him. He heard a soft sinister laugh and then a hard pain on his face once more before he was thrown into darkness. 

The last thing he heard was Lilyanne calling after him in the distance.

  
  
  
  


Damara had initially been a little annoyed when Eliane and Daniela announced that it was her turn to do the “night shift” as they liked to call it. But it wasn’t like Damara was innocent from doing the same thing, she just didn’t like to be on the receiving end of it. Regardless it was her turn to make travel around the castle and scan the ground to see if there were any intruding in the neighboring forest that she needed to take care of. 

As it turned out there were intruders that she needed to take care of that evening. Damara had found it odd that they were attacking each other, there were two men fighting. Well, one was punching the other while they sat on the ground too dazed to do anything. 

Her job was almost laughably easy. When she landed she had been expecting a fight, she was ready to call her sisters to tear them to shreds. But instead of fighting back, the hunters instead ran away like startled street cats. And they had left their teammate behind. He was still dazed, but she could see the mild fear in his eyes as she approached him, her long shadow covering him like a cloak. 

All it took was a swift knock to the forehead and he was knocked out cold. Like she said, her job was entirely too easy. 

She dragged the hunter back to the castle, she slung him over her shoulder and he dangled like a half-empty sack of potatoes. Humans really were pathetic. When she got back to the castle, Eliane’s eyes had widened with shock. 

“It’s him!” She said pointing a finger at the human as Damara let him fall off of her shoulder and spill onto the floor. His head bounced like a ball, with a sharp crack as his skull met the wooden floor. She didn’t care how hurt he got, he was going to suffer far worse injuries than just being carelessly tossed onto the floor, might as well start now. Eliane’s shocked gazed quickly turned to that of anger. “I’m going to kill him.” Eliane declared making a step towards him before Damara held her hand out. 

“Wait.” She said, gently pressing it into her sister’s shoulder to hold her back, Eliane looked up at her, her eyes flashing like golden flame. Her teeth ground together. “Put him in the cellar, we still need to find the others, if there are any.” Damara reasoned her eyes locked with her sisters. For a moment it seemed that Eliane was going to ignore her. But after a long moment, Eliane let out a frustrated huff and begrudgingly stepped back. 

“I go first.” Eliane said, narrowing her eyes so they were molten slits. Damara nodded and Daniela rolled her eyes, Damara gave her a hard look over Eliane's shoulder. Daniela ultimately agreed, Eliane would go first. It was only fair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you're wondering how many hunters there are because I seem to be introducing a new one each time they show up in a chapter.
> 
> Michel Kingsburg - alive  
> Timothy Kingsburg - alive? (next chapter we'll see what happens to him)  
> Joseph Kingsburg - dead  
> Justin Miller - alive  
> Lilyanne Kim - alive  
> Elijah Witherspoon - dead


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Damara knocked on the door to Mother’s bedroom. Eliane was taking the hunter down to the cellar. A small smile pulled at her lips, she tried to hide it. But she couldn’t stop smiling at the thought of revenge for what that hunter had done to Mother. There was a soft reply from Mother through the door. 

“Come in.” She said. Damara opened the door, the hinges groaned softly. Mother looked up from the book she was reading, she closed it with a soft snap. Mother saw the look on Damara and her head tilted to the side, her golden eyes narrowing but a smile formed on her face matching Damara’s. “What's gotten you so happy, my dear?” She asked, setting the thick book onto the stand next to her bed with a soft, hollow,  _ thunk _ . Damara could hear the light teasing in her voice. 

She noticed that Mother had removed the bandages around her arm and had nearly coiled them on the same stand that she had placed her book on. Damara felt her smile falter for a moment, as not so distant memories resurfaced in her mind. She pushed them away because they didn’t matter now, Mother was okay, that's all that was important. They were still coated in, what was now, brown blood. Mother’s blood. All that was left of the injury on her arm was a small patch of puckered skin, a new addition to the plethora of scars already on her body from various fights and encounters. The one that Damara never failed to notice was the mark on her chest. It was small, but it was dark, probably from the cut being fairly deep. The area of puckered flesh on her arm was dark too.

“We’ve caught one!” Daniela said excitedly, her smile returning. She felt as giddy as a child who had just been told that they were allowed to each every pastry in the bakery.

“One of what?” Mother asked tilting her head to the side, a playful smile still pulled at her lips and she was already making a move to get up. The bed creaked and groaned as a heavy weight was lifted from it. 

“A hunter, Mother.” Damara said. “I’ve caught a hunter, the same one who was with the man who shot you.” Damara explained feeling giddier by the minute. Damara’s hands found each other and her fingers began to clasp together and then unclasp before they reconfigured themselves. She always fiddled with her hands when she was excited by trying to keep her composure. A few insects parted from her body and flew around the room, their buzzing was in tune with Damara’s energy level. 

“I see.” Mother said. There was a look in her eyes, a flash. It was almost indescribable to Damara it was something like a deep hunger like her eyes suddenly opened up into an endless bit of molten hot rage. Damara knew the anger wasn’t directed at her, but she couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of wariness once she saw it. 

Mother stood up to her full height, her feet were bare and even then they thunked against the wooden floor. Damara suddenly felt tiny, small and insignificant, when compared to her mother. The rage still boiled in her Mother’s eyes when she looked down at her, making Damara feel like a tiny mouse at the mercy of a hungry lion. She fought the instinct to shrink away to allow the larger and stronger individual to take charge. She knew Mother wouldn’t hurt her. 

“Lead the way, my dear.” Mother said, making a flowing motion with her hands. Damara turned around to guide Mother down to the cellar. “Wait, there is something that we need to do first.” Mother said quickly as if something had just gotten her attention. 

Damara turned around to question Mother only to see she was already looking at something. Damara tracked her vision and saw that she was staring at the nanny. Goodness, Damara had completely forgotten about her. 

Ms. Collins, Damara knew she had a first name but she simply couldn’t remember it, Kate? -no that wasn’t right- she’ll figure it out later, was walking along the hallways cradling Rosie in her arms. She bounced Rosie ever so slightly. Damara looked back at Mother who was still watching the small woman walk by. There was a new look in her eyes that accompanied the rage, but it seemed to almost overpower it. She couldn’t read it. Strange. It was like the fire in her eyes had suddenly died down to a, equally dangerous, smolder. It was a look that Damara had never seen before from Mother. 

“We need to send her away for a few hours while we-- interrogate-- our new guest.” Mother said finally tearing her eyes away from the nanny and turning to look at her daughter. “He will undoubtedly scream and I don’t want Kat sneaking around when she hears him.” Mother said. Damara nodded, Mother had a good point. Kat -so that was her name- would probably look around when she heard the hunter pleading for help. They wouldn’t want her sneaking around, would they? 

“Where would we send her, Mother?” Damara asked as Kat opened the door to Rosie’s room and disappeared. 

“We are running low and baby food for Rosie, I will send her into town, tomorrow, to get more, the trip will take a few hours at the least.” Mother said. Damara nodded before realizing Mother’s words. She turned quickly feeling a little bit of disappointment. 

“Wait tomorrow?” She asked, she didn’t care that she sounded like a disappointed child trying to guilt their parents into something. She looked up at Mother trying to pull a face that might convince Mother to change her mind, but alas it seemed that she was immune to puppy dog eyes. Damara looked down feeling her shoulders droop. Eliane was going to be pissed. Mother let out a soft chuckle and reached out gently stroking her hair. Damara leaned into her a little bit.

“I know you're disappointed, but you will have all the time in the world tomorrow. Let’s-” Mother let out a sign. “Go tell your sisters.” Damara stifled a giggle, Mother already knew they were going to put up more of a protest than Damara was. Mother rolled her eyes and gently ruffled Damara’s hair, pulling down her veil slightly in front of her eyes. 

“Mother!” Damara said playfully, batting her hands away. “You’re messing up my hair!” She said, trying to straighten some of the tangled locks. She tucked them neatly behind her ears. 

“Go tell your sisters, I’ll be there in a moment.” Mother said. Damara nodded and headed back down to the cellar preparing herself for the backlash that would come with telling her sisters that they would have to wait a day before disemboweling the hunter locked up in a cellar cage. But despite this, she found herself almost skipping down the hall and smiling to herself as the feeling of mild dread willed her. 

  
  
  
  


Kat slowly put Rosie down into the crib. She pulled the soft blanket over the infant's body and picked up the old teddy bear sitting on the floor as limp as a half-opened bag of rice. She still thought he looked creepy. She set the bear into the crib next to Rosie still feeling slightly unsettled by it.

She left the room and headed to her own. The door opened with a slight creek, Kat winced, it seemed that she had gotten the noisiest door in the castle. Once she was in she changed to get ready for bed. She wasn’t sure how late it was, but she was getting tired and it was dark out.

She pulled her clothes off and instantly shivered as the air hit her exposed skin. She felt a mild itch and scratched her fingers against her skin. She stopped when she felt the tips of her fingers dip into the massive scar that stretched from her shin all the way to the middle of her calf. Her fingers dragged against it, the tips falling into the little divots that each tooth had made into her skin. If she shut her eyes imagined hard enough she could still remember the searing pain as the creature’s teeth sunk into her flesh and the tearing and squelching of flesh as it was pulled away from her bone.

She could still remember its face. Grey, milky white eyes staring at nothing, and its sharp rotting teeth, and its surprising strength as it grabbed her leg and pulled her back across the floor. Kat pulled her hand away as if she had shocked herself. Her heart was pounding in her chest and tears were beginning to prickle in her eyes. She needed to stop, she was scaring herself. She felt the heat from her tears growing behind her eyes and she furiously wiped them away. It didn’t matter now.

She pulled her fluffy pants on and changed into her tank top. She sat down on her bed, feeling suddenly exhausted. 

There was a sudden knock on her door. Kat jumped violently, gasping. A soft voice floated into the room from behind the door. “Kat, are you in there?” It asked softly almost melodically. Now Kat’s heart was pounding for a different reason because that voice belonged to Lady Dimitrescu. What was she doing here? Kat wondered to herself. 

Kat contemplated saying nothing and allowing the woman to walk away, but she felt a pang of guilt thinking that so she instead said, “Come in.”

The doorknob twisted with a soft creek and Lady Dimitrescu ducked to step into the room. She stood at her full height. Kat felt even smaller sitting down while she stood before her. Kat gulped, her heart pounding hard against her chest like it was straining to break free of her ribcage.

“Uh, hello.” Kat said, raising her hand and giving a short little wave. She inwardly cringed but kept her face neutral.

“Good, evening.” Lady Dimitrescu said, her eyes slowly moving downwards to meet Kat’s. Kat couldn’t help but feel like she was somehow looking through her and into her very soul. She wanted to shrink away, but she just sat there, staring at her like an idiot. 

“Can I help you?” Kat asked, trying not to sound rude, but curious. 

“We are low on baby food-” Lady Dimitrescu began but Kat interrupted her, a decision she instantly regretted. 

“Oh yeah, I saw that do you want me to…” Kat stopped talking, her voice growing softer until it dropped off completely, looking up at her woman, her face remained neutral but Kat could see a hardness in her eyes. It made Kat suck in her bottom lip and crew on it before she realized what she was doing and stopped before Lady Dimitrescu noticed. It was abundantly clear that Lady Dimitrescu did not like to be interrupted. She was probably giving her leeway because she was new. There was a moment of silence between them. Kat’s eyes darted around the room unable to look the woman in the eye, while Lady Dimitrescu’s remained on her, boring into the side of her head. Kat glanced at her and her eyes were still on her, boring into her very soul. Kat felt her hair stand up on end, she wanted to curl up into a ball and disappear. 

“I need you to go into town tomorrow morning, yes.” Lady Dimitrescu finally said, her voice was slow and deliberate. 

“Sure thing.” Kat said she noticed her voice was a little higher. Lady Dimitrescu nodded, but she didn't leave right away. Instead, she looked at Kat, Kat wanted to say something to make her leave but she didn’t. Eventually, Lady Dimitrescu turned around and left the room, stooping as she did.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Eliane had been disappointed when Damara sheepishly came down the stairs, fiddling with her fingers, to tell them a moment later than Mother had said to wait. Part of Eliane already knew that Mother’s word was final, there was no talking her out of her decision. But she had already worked so hard to chain the hunter to the wall. But unfortunately, it would seem she would have to wait until the morning. 

There was no other explanation given as to why Mother wanted them to wait. And Eliane didn’t think to ask. Looking back she wished she had. Mother didn’t take away their fun for no reason, there had to be one. But Eliane didn’t look. 

Daniela had been uncharacteristically cooperative. She rolled her eyes and huffed quietly to herself, but she didn’t really put up much of a fight. Eliane found herself almost disappointed when Daniela simply left the room mumbling about things being unfair, usually, there was more of a show. Perhaps it was because it came from Mother, but usually, that didn’t stop Daniela.

Out of everyone in her family (excluding Uncle Heisenburg because he always came first in this instance), Daniela was the one to butt heads with Mother the most often. Unsurprisingly, she was the “trouble child” as Mother so fondly put it. It was common to see her trying to bargain her way into our out of something while Mother listened intently with her hands on her hips, completely unconvinced by the end of it. Or quietly arguing with Mother. 

They left the hunter in chains. He was probably going to wake up disoriented and instantly freak out when he realized where he was. The thought of that soothed some of Eliane’s disappointment. Until she realized she was probably going to miss it, and her disappointment quickly returned.

During the night she struggled to sleep. Her mind was far too restless, and her body was full of too much energy. She tossed and turned, feeling uncomfortable and overheated in every position, eventually, she had turned over so much in her bed that her sheets began to tangle. She tried to straighten them out, but with a combination of sleep deprivation, darkness, and her sheets being too tied up she couldn’t straighten them out. Eventually, she just gave up and accepted the mass of wadded sheets for the night and fell into a restless sleep periodically waking up every couple of hours. 

Dawn could not come any sooner. She could see the sun making its slow trek over the horizon. Originally it was just a little line of light constating against the dark blue sky still speckles with stars. Gradually the sky grew lighter and lighter but even then the seconds felt like hours. Eliane laid in her bed, staring up at the ceiling. 

When she couldn’t wait any longer Eliane threw off her tangled mass of sheets, telling herself she would remake it later in the day. She was full of energy and she had been since the night before, it had been resting inside of her building and growing until it was too much for her to handle. The damn was going to break soon, and when it did all hell was going to be unleashed upon that hunter. She didn’t care that Mother would, most likely, scold her for waking up so early.

She was the first up and dressed. She practically ran out of the hallway that both of her sisters were in and was quickly descending the stairs. She tried to be as quiet as possible but at the speed, she was going at she was bound to make some noise. She was going to go down into the cellar and wait for everyone else to get up. She was probably going to regret her decision, she could barely stand still even now. But she wasn’t thinking about the future she was busy thinking about now. 

When she got down the stairs she was surprised to see Mother walking with the nanny. She had given them a leather sack that they had draped over their shoulder like a sash, and Mother had even given them some money. How peculiar. Was this why she wanted them to wait? She didn’t want to nanny to hear the hunter’s screams. How strange. Usually, she didn’t care about such things. If someone was caught snooping in the cellar, they too would end up as the same fate as the person they had heard. 

She could hear Mother’s voice, it was strict, but not harsh. Almost as strict when she would give the maids direct orders. As Eliane got closer she could hear Mother’s words more clearly. 

“-And don’t talk to too many people, I want you back before sunset, do you understand?” Mother asked the nanny. The nanny said something Eliane couldn’t make out, but it sounded almost timid. Mother went silent for a moment, and they stared at each other like they were having a telepathic conversation. The nanny nodded her hazel eyes looking up at Mother.

“Yes, ma’am.” The nanny said. Her legs looked like they were made out of wax being heated by fire like they were going to fall out from under her at any moment she was going to be left a crumpled mess on the floor. At first, Eliane thought it was out of fear, something that she had been in almost all of the staff who had worked here. Mother was powerful, and her words had a way of making anyone who listened to her freeze up and gives in. But after looking into the nanny’s eyes Eliane could see it wasn’t entirely out of fear, but she just couldn’t quite figure out what it was. 

And with that, the nanny was out the door. 

  
  
  
  


Kat was a little surprised by some of the “ground rules” that Lady Dimitrescu had set up. Those weren’t her exact words but even if she didn’t say it, they were basically the same thing. Some made sense, others just were weird. There weren't very many and they were easy enough to follow. But she didn’t mind. Listening to her voice was like listening to a song with a beautiful melody you could just get lost in- and she was getting distracted. 

Rule one: Don’t dally. It was understandable she didn’t want Kat to get distracted and thrown off course because she saw something that caught her eye. It was one of the simplest and hardest rules to follow. 

Rule two: Don’t talk to the townsfolk unless it was absolutely necessary. Why? She didn’t say! Kat had asked and she had gotten no response except for the same hard look in her eyes she had gotten the night before. Kat added a new point to her gradually growing list of don’ts. One: don’t interrupt her, and two: don’t question her. Got it. 

The walk to the village was too far. Maybe a mile or two, the walk didn’t  _ seem _ that long, but that might have been because she enjoyed the scenery. There was a small path that led into the forest. But some parts of it were obstructed by trees that grew between the cracks in the rocks and gradually ripped the road apart. Or some parts of it were completely obscured by moss, unsounded slippery when the environment was wetter and warmer. 

She followed the path; sometimes she had to look extra hard for it. Some parts of it were swallowed up by the earth. Besides the slight inconveniences, it was very pretty to look at. The snow and the ice clinging to the trees made the forest almost have a magical quality to it.

When she had gotten to the town the sky had gone from a dark blue to a light grey, some clouds still resided in the sky still threatening to spill precipitation. Clearly, her walk had been longer than it felt, but that was a  _ good _ thing, right?

The village was small-ish there were plenty of houses and shops and she thought she saw a stable somewhere. Kat loved horses, they were such beautiful creatures, so majestic and tall -like Lady Dimitrescu- she was getting off task again. 

Kat shifted the leather sack thrown over her, it was heavier than she thought it would be. There were already some villagers milling around the streets. When she opened the gates some turned to stare at her. Kat suddenly didn’t feel very welcomed. Suddenly that rule of not talking to anyone seemed all too easy. Maybe it was because she was a stranger. 

As she walked through the streets the locals seemed to stare at her, but not outright. They would do a double-take when she didn’t think she was watching. When she walked down the street it was like they moved out of her way. Like they didn’t want her to be near them. 

She felt their eyes boring into her as she walked up to the little shop that Lady Dimitrescu had directed her to and pulled the old wooden door open. The building was small but cozy, it was warm, provided by the fire in the fireplace that crackled and popped.

A young woman sat behind the counter and she smiled at Kat. Kat smiled back at her feeling slightly more welcomed. “Good morning.” The woman said, flicking a strand of red hair out of her face. Her smile was warm. “Now can I help you?” She asked. 

“I need to get more baby food.” Kat said, patting the leather bag on her shoulder. She looked around, this was the place that Lady Dimitrescu had said to go to, but she didn’t see anything. She was starting to feel silly. 

“Oh, it’s right here, dear.” The woman said ducking under the counter. “Pumpkin, spinach with ham, or carrots and squash.” The woman said mostly to herself, Kat could barely hear her. Her voice slightly muffled by the carved wood. Kat’s nose wrinkled. Nothing sounded appealing but she was sure the one that Rosie had been eating had ham chunks in it. Kat looked at the designs they were intricate and swirling. 

The woman came back up holding small cartons with glass containers each one looked like they had about eight in them. She went down again and put some more there. Kat handed her the money and put the food into her leather sack. 

Kat turned to leave, but just then the woman spoke. “Where are you from, I haven’t seen you before, and we don't have very many visitors.” She said.

“I’m currently staying at the castle.” Kat said. The woman’s face faltered for a moment, the woman’s face paled, it was like she had just seen her own death. 

“A-are you?” The woman said her voice was still pleasant and her smile returned after a moment, but Kat could see that her expression was forced. “Well, say hello to the lady for me.” The woman said. Odd, that was what the driver had told Kat. 

“Sure.” Kat said. “Um, have a nice rest of your day.” Kat turned and walked out of the shop feeling even more alone now. When Kat got outside, she noticed that all of the villagers were gone. Seemingly to have disappeared. Why did everyone disappear so fast? And all at once? 

Kat’s question was answered when a loud roar echoed from somewhere deeper in the village. 


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had some free time so I decide to work on chapter 15!

Chapter Fifteen

Kat watched as the woman’s eyes widened with terror. She quickly rushed around the counter and ran to the door. A moment later Kat heard a click and she felt her heart drop into her stomach. She ran to the door and peered into the window at the woman who rushed back over to her counter, grabbed a shotgun off of the wall, and ducked down behind the counter once more. 

Kat felt her blood turn to ice and she felt herself beginning to freeze up. She needed to run, but it felt like her feet had suddenly grown roots. There was a second roar, and then she heard growling and snarling. Whatever had made the sound, there were two of them. Something in Kat pulled her out of her frightened state enough that she was able to pick up her feet and start to run. But she was weighed down by the contents of the bag. 

She didn’t think to drop it, all she could think of was the run. Run as fast as she could out of this place. She turned on her heel and darted off of the building’s steps and onto the sidewalk. She watched as the last of the villagers closed and locked up their doors and windows. The ones that she could see, she saw them grabbing a weapon and crouching down to hide. Some villagers looked downright terrified, but others looked almost annoyed. Did this happen often? Kat wondered to herself. She could feel the vibrations of something or two somethings heading her way, as each moment passed it grew stronger and stronger until it was sending little tingles into the bottoms of her feet. She heard another snarl. It sounded like fighting like two massive beasts were attacking each other. 

A moment later a grey creature came flying around the corners, their back smashed into a building. Kat let out a little squeak but the creature didn’t seem to notice her. It was too focused on the other thing that was running towards it with its claws out and teeth bared. 

Both creatures looked like they were part of the same species, or race, or whatever. Their skin was grey and they had patches of fur on their bodies, much thicker than any human’s she had seen. In fact, it looked like it covered most of their bodies. Their faces were humanoid, but their muzzles were slightly elongated. Kat’s mind was far too muddled and clouded with fear to think properly. Stupidly she watched instead of ran at the creatures and threw everything they had at each other. Kat could see they wore some pieces of clothing, though it was ripped and faded kind of like Beebear's.

What were they fighting over? She watched as the creatures punched, kicked, bit at each other. No matter how brutal and violent one was to the other they never gave up. When one was thrown to the ground, it got right back up and continued to fight. Blood ran down their fur, looking glossy and shiny.

Despite both of the creature’s unwillingness to give in to the other, there was a clear winner of the fight. They were bigger and looked stronger. Their fur was darker almost jet black while the other one had a lighter tone of grey. Kat could see their muscle bulging out of their arms and legs. She could see them as they quivered from strain as they held the other creature back. 

Kat backed away from the fight and hid behind the corner of the building, now too entranced by the creatures to move. Eventually, the jet-black creature threw the grey one to the ground. And this time they didn’t get back up. Slowly their enemy grew closer and closer, it was almost like they were slowing down deliberately trying to build up suspense and fear. The grey creature backs up half-heartedly dragging its body against the ground trying to escape. It seemed like the creature knew it had lost. The jet-black one was finally feet away from the grey one when they charged them and with one swift move, they ran forward, grabbed their head, and twisted. 

There was a sharp crack that rang through the empty down. It was the only sound and Kat swore it echoed. The grey creature went limp after their limbs spasmed and they were dropped onto the ground while the jet black creature stood up to its full height and looked around. 

It looked up to the grey cloud-covered sky and let out a deafening roar of victory that had Kat covering her fears from it. It left the body of the grey creature in the street suddenly disinterested in it. 

Suddenly it sniffed the air. Kat felt her eyes widen, she should have been taking the time to escape but now it was too late. The creature dropped down onto its hands and feet. It looked like it was ready to pounce. It had caught wind of her smell and it was going to find her. She turned on her heel and ran, the leather bag smacked against her side and the glass containers rattled against each other. 

Kat grabbed the bag and held it against her body, before running. She wasn’t sure which direction she was going in and quite frankly she didn’t care. She just wanted to be away from this beat. Why had she been so stupid? Why did she wait around to see what was going to happen? The creature snarled, Kat looked behind her to see that it was a few yards behind her and was catching up. 

Kat ran faster, her legs screamed at her to stop, but she couldn’t. The creature leapt at her, its sharp claws unleashed. She felt a sharp sting of pain as its hand raked across her back. Kat screeched. The creature smacked her again, hitting her under her arm, and she felt a crunch as her rib broke. 

She turned a sharp corner trying to shake the creature off of her trail. Her breathing was ragged and it was becoming painful. She wondered if her lung had been impaled. The creature ran right past her, it tried to stop, but lost traction and skidded past the alleyway that Kat had gone down. Her shoes slipped against the cobblestone road. She let out a shriek. She looked up and skidded to a halt, there was a metal fence. She stopped, staring at it feeling her heart flutter with fear. She ran towards the gate grabbing two of the metal bars and pulling. 

For a moment it seemed like her efforts were wasted, but slowly the metal began to groan and shriek as it was pulled apart. Kat’s arms shook from the strain and her face was scrunched up by effort. She just managed to make the opening large enough so that she could slip through. There was an angry snarl. Kat turned to see the creature standing at the alleyway entrance. She quickly worked her way through the small opening she had for herself. The creature charged at her. 

She managed to get through the bars right as the creature got to her. Its arm reached out and swiped at her, it raked across her arm leaving deep gashes in her skin. She let out a cry of pain. She pulled herself away. Falling to the ground on her good arm. Her body wrapped around the leather bag protecting the cargo from breaking. Her arm stung from the impact and her head hit against the pavement with a large crack. She sat up, her vision swimming in front of her. She grabbed her head feeling the slick sensation of blood flowing out of the opening. The creature paced in front of the metal gate, it was too large to fit through the opening and the gate was just tall enough it didn’t look like it could jump over it. 

Kat let out a breath of relief and looked up to see that further down the alleyway led to another gate. She wasn’t sure how far it was, but looked tiny from where she was so it had to be some considerable distance, right? She let out a shaky laugh of relief, at least there was another way out. Slowly she picked herself back up and headed towards the back gate. It would see she would have to go around the town. 

  
  
  
  


Alcina had to give it to the hunter. He was quite resilient. Even after Daniela cut open his leg, allowing it to bleed out onto the floor, _and_ bit off his pinky finger, he still refused to crack. The only sounds they were able to drag out of him with grunts and whimpers of pain, and screaming. But no talking. It was a simple question, not that hard to answer. Where was the rest of the hunter party? See simple. It was starting to become tiresome. Her daughters were getting bored and that never happened. 

After a while, her daughters dropped their instruments and walked over to her. “He won’t talk.” Daniela complained, her voice whiney. She crossed her arms and pouted. Alcina stood up and slowly walked over to the hunter, who hung limply on the wall. His head hung and she could hear his ragged breathing. 

“You’re disappointing my daughters.” Alcina said. The hunter didn’t respond; he didn’t even look at her. “I’m only going to ask this once,” Alcina began stepping towards the hunter and grabbing his chin. She pulled his head up so she was looking at her in the eye. “Where is your hunting party?” Alcina asked. The hunter spit in her face. Alcina reeled back in disgust. Her daughters gasped. Alcina brought her hand up to her face and wiped the spit off of her face with a sharp motion. She bared her teeth at the hunter. 

And seemingly wanted to seal his fate even further the hunter spoke. His voice was hoarse. “I’m not gonna talk to a _bitch_ like you.” He snarled. Alcina sighed, such noble nonsense. Alcina extended a single claw out of her fingertip. The hunter’s eyes widened and she chuckled. 

“We’ll try this again tomorrow.” She said with a smile, trying to keep her composure, she couldn't kill him now they needed information. She settled on dragging her claw along his cheek. A thin line was cut into his face, he turned away from it. With that, she turned and stalked out of the room. Shortly after her daughter followed her out, they closed the door behind them throwing the hunter into complete and total darkness.

Alcina sighed to herself, she was going to have to find a new way to get Kat out of the castle beforehand. 


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They left Rosie with Heisenberg. :)

Chapter Sixteen

Rosie seemed to like Heisenberg, or at least that’s what  _ he _ thought. She had taken a liking to grabbing fistfuls of his facial hair and pulling as hard as she could on it. God, she was so much like Alcina, and she wasn’t even related to her. It was amazing how  _ all _ of her daughters were a lot like her despite having no blood relation whatsoever. 

His mind wandered back to his wolves. Sometimes when he was gone they had a tendency to get a little rambunctious, and recently there had been some arguments and fighting that he had to break up. He hoped that they were at least keeping it within the confines of his grounds. He decided not to dwell on it any further. 

He was slightly surprised to find that his sister had taken in another daughter. And he had been surprised that this one was so young. All of her other daughters had been brought back to the castle when they were at least a few years old; The youngest that her older daughters were when they were first brought back was two, and that was Eliane. This one looked far younger than that. But he wasn’t complaining, that just meant he just had more time to convince her that he was the best uncle in the world. And so far he thought he was doing a pretty good job. 

Rosie sat on the floor, she wore a little frilly blue dress. She was currently gnawing on a wooden brick. There was a loud scream from the cellar, it was muffled from traveling through thick stone walls, but it was still loud. Rosie dropped her block and let out a squeal, falling onto her back, and giggling wildly. Heisenberg reached forward and pulled Rosie back upright in a seated position. Heisenberg listened again but the screams had gone silent. Maybe they killed the hunter. It served them right. 

She continued to chew on that brick. Heisenberg reached forward chuckling to himself. “Silly Rosie, that doesn’t go in your mouth.” His grip wasn’t that strong (honestly he wasn’t expecting her to pull to be that strong.)

“No!” Rosie said pulling the block back and whacking herself in the face. The force knocked her over. Heisenberg didn’t waste a second, he crawled over to her picking her back up. 

“Oh no! I’m sorry.” He said cradling her close to him as she began to sniffle and whimper. He rubbed her forehead with the back of his foreigner trying to soothe the little red spot that was forming on her face. He cringed and waited for the ear-splitting shriek, that would undoubtedly leave his sensitive ears ringing, that Rosie was building in her lungs. 

And if fate wasn’t cruel enough the moment that Rosie decided to start wailing was the moment that Alcina walked by her door. Probably to check or Rosie, or him, because she didn’t think he was capable around children. It was probably to check on him. 

“Now what did you do this time?” Alcina asked ducking through the doorway and putting her hands on her hips. Her tone had concern laced through it, but it was almost masked by the monotone unsurprised-ness in her voice. Heisenberg was almost offended. 

“Everything was fine two  _ fucking _ seconds ago!” Heisenberg said as Alcina kneeled down and scooped Rosie out of his lap. Rosie immediately stopped crying. The little faker.

“What did I say about cursing around the baby?” Alcina asked. “Or any of my children for that matter?” She added her eyes darkening as she stared at him. Heisenberg felt like shrinking like he was being stared down by a predator. 

“It was one time, she’s not going to repeat it.” He said, making a face at Alcina. If anyone else were to have done that to her, she would have wiped it off their face real quick with a quick slash of her claws. But he was her brother meaning he got privileges, not as many as her daughters, but some. So instead of being clawed to death, he got a simple growl. 

“Fuck!” Rosie exclaimed excitedly looking up at her mother with a shit-eating grin on her face. 

“Goddammit.” Heisenberg said to himself, dropping his head into his hands. 

Alcina slowly looked down at Heisenberg sitting on the floor, her golden eyes slowly tracking down until they landed on him. He could see her jaw tightening. He gave her a sheepish smile. 

“I swear it was one time.” He said quickly. 

Alcina stared at him with hard eyes, her lips barely moved as she spoke through clenched teeth. “The only thing that is saving you is the fact Rosie is in here.” Heisenberg knew that wasn’t exactly true, what was saving him was that he was her brother and deep down she cared about him. But would he say that to her? God no. 

  
  
  
  


Every time Kat inhaled, it sent an aching pain through her. Skin and muscle healing was one thing, but broken bones? Broken bones were a bitch. First, the bone had to realine, and then it had to heal, and that just too time. And an ass load of energy. At this point, she was dragging her feet and shambling. She just couldn’t keep up. She needed to lay down but she couldn’t rest just yet. She needed to get back to the castle. 

The walk to the castle hadn’t seemed that long, but now that she was trying to traverse the path, everything seemed ten times longer. 

Kat swayed and her vision doubled. She stumbled over nothing and fell to her knees. She tried to push herself back up onto her feet, but her arms were too weak. They shook and quivered until she finally collapsed onto the ground. Her face met the soft, cold soil. Exhausted took hold and her eyes shut. 

  
  
  
  


_ “No one’s coming, we have to leave. If we don’t sooner or later we’re going to get eaten.” Kat said pacing back and forth. Alison sat on a bed. They had three other housemates. Simon and Jack sat on the floor. And Katie sat on the side of the bed looking up at Alison. Everyone looked defeated. No one could look anyone else in the eye.  _

_ They had run out of all the food in the fridge a few days ago, the power was out, and they were now relying on junk food. Kat wasn’t sure she could survive on snickers and potato chips for the rest of her days. There were zombies roaming the streets, it wasn’t like they could just go get more.  _

_ The water wasn’t drinkable either. And they ran out of the bottled stuff yesterday. They would only last so long now. They needed to get out or they were going to die. No one was coming, that was obvious. _

_ “Kat.” Alison said, her voice soft. She rested her hand on Kat’s arm. Kat stopped pacing and sagged a little. She sat down next to her and Alison looked Kat’s hands into her own. “It’s going to be okay, we’ll figure something out.” Alison’s hands tightened around Kat’s.  _

_ “We need to leave the city.” Kat said.  _

_ “That’s suicide Kat.” Jack interjected, he sounded annoyed. Kat wrenched her hands away from Alison and turned so she was facing Jack. She stared at him down.  _

_ “You know what else is suicide? Staying here!” Kat yelled. Jack jumped.  _

_ “Kat, please the last thing we need is fighting.” Alison said, grabbing Kat’s arm and holding tightly like she expected her to launch herself at Jack at any moment. Everyone went silent, Alison never took her hands off of Kat. But her touch was something of a comfort to Kat at the moment.  _

_ “She’s right, you know.” Simon said after a minute. He looked down at his feet. Jack turned to stare at him shocked. “It’s been two weeks, no one is coming to save us. We need to leave or we are going to die.” Simon said.  _

_ “You’re not serious are you, Simon? Katie?” Jack asked, looking around. Katie, his own sister, wouldn’t look at him. “This is bullshit!” He said, throwing his hands up. “You’d rather risk your lives-”  _

_ “There’s no other way Jack!” Katie said. “We need to leave now, everyone is on board with this except you.” She said.  _

_ “Fine, you go and get yourselves killed, I’m not coming with you!” He said. And it was settled. An hour later they brought the bare minimum, a backpack of whatever food they could scrounge up, a map, and a weapon. Kat found a crowbar and kept it. It would be useful.  _

  
  
  
  


Kat lifted her head gasping as if she had been underwater for a little too long. She looked around, shit! It was dark out. She pushed herself up to her feet. She looked over herself. Her scratches were still open, it seemed that her body had used most of its energy fixing her broken rib. She still felt exhausted, but the moment of rest seemed to help a little bit. Her rib had moved back into place and healed over. Her lung had healed from its puncture wound. Kat coughed, she covered her mouth with her hand and looked down. Blood. 

She wiped it on her clothes. It didn’t matter now her shirt was already blood-stained and ripped, what was one more patch of blood. She grabbed the bag and ran the rest of the way back to the castle. Her heart pounded in her chest. She was dead, so dead! 

She flew up the steps and paused for a moment. She pushed on the door not expecting it to be open, but it was unlocked and swung open easily. It willed her a sense of unease that settled in her stomach like a stone in a pond. 

Slowly she walked in when she realized that no one was there she darted down the hall until she found the dining room. She pushed the door open and there sat Lady Dimitrescu in a chair at the head of the table. She looked up at Kat, her elbows were on the table and her fingers were neatly laced together.

Her hat veiled her face in shadows. The only thing that Kat could see were her golden eyes, glowing at her in the dark. Kat swallowed hard. She had been seen, the game was up. 

“Kat.” Lady Dimitrescu said, tilting her head and smiling at Kat. But there was no sincerity in the smile, it was cold and sinister. 

“Good evening.” Kat said. She probably shouldn’t have done that. She didn’t seem like the kind of person who liked it when people were smart with her. Her smile faded. 

“I thought I asked you to be back before dark.” Lady Dimitrescu said getting up from the table. 


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lady D is PISSED.

Chapter Seventeen 

Lady Dimitrescu rose from her seat, gracefully, her dress sweeping across the floor. She looked down at Kat, who felt like she was beginning to crumble under the weight of her gaze. Her black-gloved hand dragged across the table’s smooth surface as she slowly stepped around the table towards Kat. “So why are you back so late?” Lady Dimitrescu asked. Her feet thudded against the floor in a slow, deliberate rhythm.

Kat gulped and backed away, her heart pounding in her chest. She allowed the leather bag, suddenly feeling ten times heavier than it had initially seemed, to slide down her arm and onto the floor. Kat felt the heavy leather strap drag over her injury. She tried to cover up a wince as it dragged over her scratch. She put her hand over her arm. 

Lady Dimitrescu’s eyes flickered across Kat’s face. And then to her hand that was covering her arm. She looked back at Kat. Her eyes narrowed and her head cocked to one side, slowly. Kat felt her grip tighten on her arm. Her scratch ached and burned. 

“I - I---” Kat tried to speak, but it felt like the words were too jumbled together to come out properly. She sucked in a shaky breath, she could feel her fingers trembling. Lady Dimitrescu stepped closer, her golden eyes staring into Kat’s who was far too terrified to take her eyes off of her. Kat swallowed thickly. Terror pooled in her stomach. She felt like she was being stalked down by a hungry, starving lion. She wanted to run but knew that it would only anger Lady Dimitrescu further. 

Kat took a step back trying to create some distance between the slowly approaching giantess and herself. She shouldn’t have done it. A low inhuman grown rose from Lady Dimitrescu's throat. It filled the room and was so deep it caused the room to rattle. She could feel it traveling through the floor and moving up through her body through the soles of her feet. Kat could hear the dishes and silverware inside of the cabinets rattle against each other. 

“Are you going to answer me?” She asked through clenched teeth, her voice soft. Dangerously soft, like glass ground into a fine pounder. Kat was now visibly shaking, her limbs tremble and her knees knocked against each other. Her arms were shaking so badly that she could hardly keep a steady hold on her arm. She could hear her teeth chattering within her own head. She looked up at Lady Dimitrescu’s face. It was neutral, stoney, emotionless. But she could see the raging fire dancing in her eyes. 

“Well?” She asked. Kat could see her teeth grinding together. She stepped closer, seeming to put some force into it. Kat entertained thoughts of running again, until she remembered that low, inhuman noise that had come from her. How did she do that? 

She won't believe you. A dark voice curled into Kat’s mind. A voice that wasn't her own. Usually, she would try to push these thoughts out of her head and out of existence. But this time it didn’t feel like an annoying nagging from her subconscious, it felt like a warning. Kat knew it was true. Who would believe some giant harry creatures came into a village and fought each other to the death. It sounded like something right out of a fantasy novel.

She would just have to lie, wouldn't she? But if she did lie, then she could get into more trouble. If Lady Dimitrescu found out. But only if. “I got lost.” Kat said. 

“You got lost?” Lady Dimitrescu asked, cocking her head to the side. Her voice sounded unconvinced and almost disbelieving at her stupidly. It made Kat’s cheeks burn with humiliation. 

“Yes.” Kat managed to bite out while keeping her voice neutral. “I got lost.” She said lifting her chin and squaring her shoulders, but she shrunk when Lady Dimitrescu gave her a burning look. 

Lady Dimitrescu let out a dark chuckle. And with a scoff, she said, “There was a path marked out, you couldn’t it?” She asked, she didn’t even try to hide her condescending tone. 

“I went out the other gate.” Kat said, swallowing. That _wasn’t_ a lie. She did, but for other reasons.

“Why?” Lady Dimitrescu asked.

“I wanted to see what the rest of the village looked like.” Kat said. Lady Dimitrescu’s face darkened. Kat could see her jaw tightening and it seemed like the fire in her eyes only seemed to grow. Kat felt her heart jump into her throat. Oh no she had said something wrong! 

“What did I say about dallying?” Lady Dimitrescu asked, her voice was barely above a whisper. Kat could only just understand her, but she wouldn’t dare ask her to repeat. Oh, Kat had forgotten about the rules completely. She was in for something now. She just knew it. 

“I really don’t see why taking a little detour is such a big deal,” Kat said fidgeting with her fingers. She heard her knuckles pop as she cracked them. Usually, that calmed her anxiety, but right now it didn’t help at all. Each word she spoke seemed to only anger Lady Dimitrescu further. “It - it’s a very nice village-” She didn’t let her finish. 

With a swift horizontal chop of her hand midair, right above Kat’s head Lady Dimitrescu silenced her. Kat closed her mouth and looked up at the enraged woman. “Your job is to look after Rosie.” Lady Dimitrescu said her voice had lost come of its composure. It was no longer calm, it was still quiet, but the anger in her eyes was starting to seep into her voice. “I thought you could handle a small side job without getting distracted, but it seems I was mistaken.” She snarled.

Kat looked away, the words hurt a little. It stung like a slap in the face. But Lady Dimitrescu wasn’t done talking. “And until you can prove your competence, you will not be leaving the castle grounds, understood?” She asked. 

“Yes, ma’am.” Kat said, her voice soft. She let her arms hang limply, forgetting about her scratches momentarily. 

“Good.” Was all Lady Dimitrescu said before walking past her. But not before she noticed the scratches on Kat’s arm. She grabbed Kat’s arm and pulled her closer. Kat’s heart continued to pound in her chest. Lady Dimitrescu looked at Kat before dropping her arm and walking past her completely unaffected.

“I will send Damara to patch up your arm.” She said stooping out of the dining room and walking down the hall. All the way her dress, sweeping behind her. 


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

Kat walked back to her room, slowly. Each step echoed loudly as she turned the corners and glided down the halls. It felt almost like her feet weren’t even touching the ground like she was just floating aimlessly through the air. Her thoughts raced in her mind. Why did she do that? What did she think was going to happen? Why had she been so stupid? 

If she had just told the truth maybe - And you think she would have believed you? That same voice from her conversation with Lady Dimitrescu interrupted the same voice that didn’t belong to her. It was cold and mocking. Do you honestly think she's going to believe that two harry creatures came out of nowhere and attacked you? The voice chuckled darkly. Really? You are as stupid as you look. 

She didn’t even realize that she had gotten to her door until she pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked up. She was standing in front of the heavy wooden door, she was surprised with herself. She pushed it open and headed inside, closing it gently behind her. She sighed heavily and walked towards her bed, kicking off her shoes and pushing them into the far side of her room, so they would be out of the way. 

She slowly sank into her bed. The mattress seemed to want to swallow her up. She scooted further into the middle of her bed and curled up into a ball. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. She hugged her knees close to her, the way she used to hug her stuffed animals when she wanted to find comfort in the night. 

Her dream seemed to have unlocked the deepest darkest parts of her mind, where she stored all of her memories of Racoon city. Memories she didn’t want to think about. Kat inwardly scoffed at herself, it had been twenty god damn years, and she still couldn’t get over it? 

Kat closed her eyes, inhaling slowly trying to clear her mind. She tried to focus on something other than the disaster that was today, or the destruction of the city she once called her home. But they kept surfacing like dead fish in a lake. 

  
  
  
  


_ The four of them wandered the streets. So far Kat’s crowbar had proven to be useful, not only as a weapon that could easily take down zombies rather effectively but as something that could wrench stubborn doors open or open up sealed passages. The only downside was that when she was fighting a zombie she had to get close enough to whack it. _

_ She wasn’t a huge fan of getting too close to those creatures. They stand of death, unsurprisingly, but still, it was enough to trigger Kat’s gag reflex. And she hated looking at their faces because she knew that this monster used to be a human. A living, breathing, feeling human being.  _

_ Were they still conscious of their existence, or were they so far gone that they had completely given into their instincts. Or rather the virus’s instincts. There were times when Kat made the mistake of looking one in the eye. Sometimes she saw empty eyes staring at nothing, other times they almost seemed to shimmer in the light cast down by the room and stars, pleading.  _

_ It was almost like they knew that they were slowly losing control over their own body like they knew they were a shell of what they used to be. And their eyes were pleading, not for mercy, but death, to be free from this prison that had become their own minds. And even then, somehow that pleading made them harder to kill.  _

_ They had gotten fairly far into the outer parts of the city. Not that they were too far into the center, to begin with. So far Kat thought that they were doing pretty good on time. It had only been a couple of hours since they had left and they had gone a fair distance. But it was starting to get dark out, it was making it harder to see and with the power out, there was very little light being provided by the city to help them navigate at night. Kat was starting to get tired, and she could tell that others were too, they were dragging their feet. Sometimes it caught onto small bumps in the sidewalk or road and they stumbled.  _

_ “We need to rest.” Kat said after a minute.  _

_ “Where would we stop?” Simon asked. Kat looked around in the dim and dying light she saw that looked like a hotel or a shop where they could settle down for the night.  _

_ “There,” She said pointing to the motel. “We’ll stop and rest there for the night.” She said. Simon nodded and they all trotted off the road and made their way over to the door. Kat pulled out her crowbar ready to open the door but Simon got there first and tried to open the door. It opened without a problem.  _

_ Kat was immediately filled with a sense of unease but kept it to herself.  _

_ “Huh, it’s not locked.” Simon said. “Isn’t that convenient?” He said. “Well everyone in!” He waved his hand in a mock elegant way like a butler welcoming their boss home. Katie rolled her eyes and smiled at him. Kat looked at him and shook her head, but a smile still stretched across her face. Simon had always been a goofball. _

_ When everyone was in, he closed the door behind him and turned the lock. Kat walked up to the reception desk and stood on the tips of her toes looking over it. She didn’t see anything but it was shrouded in darkness. She stepped around it and looked. Nothing. Good.  _

_ “Clear.” Kat said looking over her shoulder. But she suddenly heard a loud hiss. It sounded like someone was shushing her. She walked over and saw Alison and Katie looking up the stairs with wide, horrified eyes. Kat looked up the staircase but it was too dark to see, she squinted hoping to catch a glimpse at what they were looking at.  _

_ But she did see something move. She stepped closer, her heart beginning to pound in her chest. _

_ “What is that?” Kat asked, lowering her voice to the point that she could barely hear herself. Katie turned quickly and made a cutting motion with her hand. The sound of her voice seemed to have attracted what was up there. It stepped closer, she could hear its feet rustling against the rug. Was it a zombie? No. _

_ Kat saw the creature, but not before she heard its ragged breathing. Its skin was gone and its long limbs scuttled across the floor like a spider’s. She could see its exposed brain glistening in what little light shown through the windows.  _

_ Kat slowly back away, Katie and Alison followed her lead. Simon was already at the door. He turned the lock with a click. The sound caused the creature’s head to snap in their direction. Simon wrenched the door open and they all ushered themselves out. They would find another place to stay. _

  
  
  
  


The knock on the door made Kat jump so violently that she left the surface of the mattress a little bit. At least it had pulled her out of her thoughts. 

“Come in.” She said. Her door opened and Damara stepped inside. She smiled at Kat. 

“Mother said you hurt your arm.” Damara said gently stepping towards her. In her hand, she held some liquid in a bottle, a washcloth, and in the other, she held some bandages. “She sent me to patch you up.” Damara stepped closer. “Oh, I see them, that looks painful.” She said. “What happened?” She asked. 

“I -” Kat went quiet. “You wouldn’t believe me.” She said softly, looking away. Damara didn’t say anything, but she did give her a strange look. She sat down on Kat’s bed and gently grabbed her arm, turning it to the side. 

“Why wouldn’t I believe you?” Damara asked absentmindedly a small smile played on her lips. She rolled up Kat’s sleeve. She grabbed the washcloth and poured some of the liquid onto it. She pressed it to Kat's arm. For a moment all Kat felt was cold. But suddenly it burned. She hissed and forced herself to keep her hand in place. "Sorry, I know it burns, but cuts like this can get infected, we need to clean it." Damara said. "It's very warm." Damara remarked, much warmer than the rest of you. "How did you get these again?" Damara asked. 

Kat froze up again, not sure what to say, she wracked her brain, before answering slowly. "Tree branch." She mumbled. 

Damara looked at her, she didn't convinced by Kat's answer. But she said nothing about it and continued to clean her wounds. "I'm going to lift up your shirt, okay." Damara said. Kat almost jumped. Her hands were freezing! Like icy cold, almost like a corpse. The ointment stung when it was pressed into the wound on Kat's back.

When Damara was done cleaning Kat's wounds, she picked up the roll of bandages and slowly wrapped Kat's arm. "That's not too tight right?" She asked. Kat shook her head. "Good." Damara said. 

Kat ended up having to take off her entire shirt when Damara had to apply the second bandage. She wrapped it around her shoulder, making sure it was tight so that they didn't slip off. Kat pulled her shirt back over her head. She would change her clothes in the morning, she was too tired to do that now.

"Thank you." She mumbled to Damara when she was done. 

"Don't mention it." Damara said grabbing the bottle, the now sullied washcloth, and what was left of the bandage roll. "Good night." She said as she headed toward the door. She closed it softly behind her. Before Kat heard the soft sound of footsteps growing further away from her door, she heard the distinctive click of the door locking from the outside. 


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Damara turned the key that Mother had given to her, in the lock. Had Mother’s trust in the little human really deteriorated that much in so little time? The only time that Mother locked servants and maids into their rooms was when she didn’t trust them enough to stay put. The door locked with a soft click. Damara couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pity for the little human. Though they were not entirely undeserving of Mother’s wrath, if she hadn’t been irritated by the hunter previously in the day, Mother might have been a little less harsh with her words. 

Those scratches were definitely not made by a tree branch. Did the human think that she was really that clueless? They were far too uniform to have been made by the gnarled branch of some tree, and the scratches had been far too deep for that matter. It made Damara wonder what else Kat might have been hiding. She decided to keep it to herself at least until the morning, the last thing she wanted to do was to add another thing to Mother’s plate.

She already had enough on her plate, to begin with, the last thing Mother needed was more seeds of doubt sewn into her brain. Damara would bring it up in the morning, if Mother seemed calm enough, that is. 

Mother was sitting in the living room in her favorite armchair. There was a fire roaring in the fireplace. It danced and flickered, sending long shadows across the floor. The room was bathed in golden light. Daniela and Eliane had already gone to bed, but uncle Heisenberg was still with her. He saw cross-legged on the floor with her elbows resting on his thighs. He sat across from Mother, staring into the fire. 

Mother had a book in her hand. The only other sound that filled the room was the occasional flip of a page. Mother already did this when she was trying to wind down, calm moments like this helped her relax, but it also helped her think. And with the amount of stress that she had undoubtedly been faced with for the past few days were bound to have taken a toll on her. Damara was just glad that Mother had a chance to calm her nerves. 

“How is her arm?” Mother asked, not even bothering to look up from her book. The only indication that she was listening were her golden eyes looking over the side of the book. They almost seemed to glow. Damara figured that they probably were. The fire cast light onto Mother’s face turning her porcelain white skin into a deep shade of gold. 

“Her arm is doing better now.” Damara said, with a curt nod. She stood in the middle of the room looking between uncle Heisenberg and her Mother.

“Good, now off to bed with you.” Mother said softly, looking up from her page and giving Damara a smile. “Good night.” She said softly.

“Good night, Mother.” Damara said with a nod and with that she turned on her heel and headed out the room, closing the door behind her with a soft click. The moment she was gone, she heard voices from behind the door. They were hushed, but she could make out the worried tone in them. Damara decided against pressing her ear against the door and listening to the conversation, and instead decided it was in her best interest to go straight to bed. And that was what she did. 

  
  
  
  


Lilyanne listened to Justin and Michel fighting in the background. She didn’t dare intervene, she didn’t feel like getting her teeth knocked out. She saw how ferociously Michel was attacking Justin repeating over and over again, “I can’t believe you left him, you son of a bitch!” Or some variation of it. Sometimes there was more swearing, sometimes there was less. 

Instead, she looked over the gun in her hands. Pretending to check over it when in reality she was looking in the same places each time. She was mainly looking at the logo. It was an octagon sectioned into eight perfectly triangles all facing inward. Half were white and half were blue. The white had a strange black symbol on it, that looked like a black chain of three circles running down the middle. All the tips met at a white square, and in the center of the square was a blue dot. 

What was its name again? Oh yeah, Blue Umbrella. 

When she had signed up for this, she hadn’t expected things to go haywire so quickly. But she did have to sign a contract before she was allowed to go any further into the program, so she probably should have guessed that something like this might happen sooner or later. She probably would be alighting at her past self right now for thinking that she could make easy money like this. There was nothing easy about this. They had lost two people in the span of one week. Now a third was missing. 

She massaged her temple. When she first laid eyes on this place, this desolate wasteland of snow and ice and rock, she thought that it was going to be a piece of cake. How very wrong she was. 

And she had to sit in an hour-long meeting while they went on and on about a spiel about stopping the progenitor and the mold (whatever that meant) from continuing to terrorize the world. To put an end to organizations like the Connections and their past predecessor. Or something cheesy like that. It sounded to her that they were trying to make them out like superheroes or some shit like they were doing the world some huge favor. Honestly, she was just here for the money. She doesn’t remember exactly was she because she had stopped listening halfway through. She now wished that maybe she had listened a little bit harder. 

She had to say the weapons that this organization had provided them were very impressive. She had heard something about the group developing it themselves. From what Timothy had told her, the bullets had affected their matriarch pretty hard. She wasn’t sure what exactly was in those bullets, but it was super effective. 

They were also pretty to look at, a bright, pale blue solution that sloshed around inside of their capsules. It almost looked like a tiny aquarium you would put tiny fish inside of. That you would then shoot something with.

Her attention was snapped back to Michel and Justin as Michel punched Justin across the face. Justin stumbled back clutching his cheek. He slumped to the ground, in obvious pain. 

“Michel, I think that’s enough.” Lilyanne said. Her voice wasn’t as forceful as she wanted it to be, instead, it came out as a terrified squeak. 

Michel’s head snapped in her direction, his eyes burning with a murderous rage. “Shut up!” He snarled, grinding his teeth together. “No one asked for your opinion.” He growled. 

Lilyanne felt her heart beginning to pound in her chest. They didn’t need more dead people. She had to think of something fast, or Miche was going to kill Justin. “If we kill each other now, we won’t be able to save your brother.” She said.

Michel whipped around to stare at her and she gulped feeling her fear settle into her stomach. Suddenly it was like every bone left his body and Michel went limp. He didn’t say anything to Lilyanne, but his actions said he knew she was right. They couldn’t kill each other now, they needed to get Timothy back. 

Whatever it took. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we know where they got their weapons.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brother-Sister fight.

Chapter Twenty

**One Hour Before**

“What do you need?” Heisenberg asked, right after Damara had left the room, closing the door with a click. He looked up at his sister sitting in her chair reading a book. He sat on the floor, he would have preferred that he had a chair, but he wasn’t about to complain about it now, the fire was warm against his side. 

“I need you to look after the nanny.” Alcina said, flipping a page in the book she was holding. The fire popped suddenly causing Heisenberg to jump slightly. He scooted a little further away from the fire, not wanting any of these clothes accidentally catching a stray spark that might fly out. Alcina noticed this and got up and from the side of the fireplace, she pulled a chainmail fireguard. He wasn’t sure if she was doing it to protect him from the fire, or the floors. But he liked to think it was for him. 

“Why the nanny?” He asked once she had returned to her seat and picked her book up again. 

“I laid out a number of rules that she blatantly disobeyed, what makes me think she’s going to stay put when I tell her to?” Alcina asked looking up from her page, her golden eyes flashing with irritation. 

“I think you might be going a little hard on her. It was one mistake.” Heisenberg said looking up at his sister. Sometimes she had a tendency to overreact at times. He thought that this was a prime example. 

“A situation that could make or break our chances.” She said, her voice rose a little, he had struck a chord with her? “What if she decides she’s going to look around and she sees?” She asked, dog-earring her page and snapping her book shut. Oh, he was in for it now. She was officially teed off. 

“Then you kill her.” Heisenberg said, not even bothering to cover the almost obvious tone in her voice. That answer should have been obvious to her. Alcina’s face darkened, 

“And what if she gets below our radar?” Alcina asked, grinding her teeth together. He could see the anger in her eyes building. But he couldn’t find himself to care, she was working herself up over something so small and minuscule it was almost ridiculous. 

“The chances of that happening are so low, it barely matters.” He said, he laughed at the end of his sentence, an act that seemed to piss her off even further. Good. this was getting almost comical. 

“Watch your tone with me.” She snarled. Heisenberg felt his own brand of anger beginning to heat within him. That was a tone that their mother used to use on them when he was getting too snippy at her. He was not his mother, she was his sister and she had no right to tell him what or what not to do. 

“No!” he snarled, he threw his hand, and he felt like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, he felt slightly stupid but he pushed those feelings down. He stood up and faced his sister, who did the same thing. He looked up at her, and she looked down at him. Now he was in the place of no return. And he knew that. Usually, he would be regretting his choices, but right now he just felt victorious. 

“You’re really pissing me off right now.” She growled through clenched teeth. 

“Oh, because I’m not bending to your every whim, and sucking up to you, like a  _ fucking _ servant?” He snarled, baring his teeth. A low growl escaped Alcina, and he growled right back, just a long and just as deep. It was almost a silent “see I can do it too you’re not special.” 

“I’m pissed off because you’re not getting the gravity of the situation!” Alcina snarled.

“Oh the gravity of the situation!” He said in a high-pitched mock of her voice, flailing his hands around. Her eyes widened with shock, he had never done this before, and when she came out of her stunned state, she was probably going to kill him. “You’re overreacting.” He said, throwing his hands up. 

“Overreacting?” Alcina yelled, her voice was shrill, almost like a shriek. For a moment, it made Heisenberg pause. “One wrong move and we all end up dead!” She bellowed. Heisenberg jumped, she never raised her voice like this. Usually, her voice got quieter and quieter until the said person she was talking to was cowering in fear. Now she just sounded crazy. 

“That’s not gonna happen, you’re working yourself up over nothing.” He yelled, curling his fingers like they were claws. Did she not get it? Did she not get how insane and paranoid she sounded? Every conversation they tried to have always ended like this. He would say something wrong that pissed her off, and they fought until someone left, usually him. Well, he wasn’t going to do that this time. 

“Heisenberg!” Her tone made him pause. It wasn’t angry, it was terrified, her voice was a shrill shriek of its former self, he could hear the desperation. He stopped and looked up at her. She continued to speak. “You don’t understand how close I was to losing her, I can’t let that happen again, it was too close.” 

She collapsed onto the ground, completely undignified, her head in her hands. He slowly stepped towards her, reaching her hand out. She inhaled and exhaled shakily, and she sobbed quietly. When she finally looked up at him, she was now at an equal height level, maybe even a little shorter, she could see it. 

The absolute terror in her eyes, the terror that she hid from her daughters so well. Tears freely rolled down her cheeks. And it finally occurred to him, she was scared. And he was being unfair. She’s never done this before, she had always been a little less expressive with her emotions, especially the more negative ones, but after her daughters were introduced into her life, she stopped expressing the negative ones altogether. She had to be her daughters’ rock, all the time. 

She looked away from him, she looked almost ashamed for her little outburst. 

“Alci?” He asked. He felt like a boy again when he first saw his sister crying in her room. “Alci?” He asked again, daring to step closer. He didn’t know what she might do next, she might tell him to leave, or she might just straight up kill him. He didn’t know. But she allowed him to get this close. 

He gently put his hands on her shoulders. She still wouldn’t look at him. The tears sat drying on her cheeks, she didn’t even both to clear them away. “Alci?” He asked one more time. This time she did look at him. The anger in her eyes was gone, she just looked exhausted. For a moment it was like he could see her real age seeping through. Old and withered, and so, so tired.

He had expected her to do many things. He hadn’t expected her to hug him. And he hadn’t expected himself to hug her back. He realized how touch-starved he was. She rested back against the seat of her chair, and he rested his head on her shoulder. 

They didn’t say anything to each other for what felt like a very long time. Hours could have passed, or minutes. He was the first to break the silence and the first to speak.

“We ever gonna do this again?” He asked softly. 

“What? Scream at each other until one of us breaks?” She asked a bitter laugh bubbling up from her throat.

“No,” He said, tightening his grip around her shoulders, “I mean, are we ever going to act like siblings again, instead of business partners?” He asked. 

She sniffed and shifted him in her lap. “I think I could do that.” She said softly. 


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty One

Kat woke in the middle of the night, the scratches under her bandages felt like they were burning, slowly and gradually they heated up until it felt like they would spontaneously combust. If she focused hard enough she could feel her body reforming from the inside out. The muscle reshaping and reforming, it felt like a brood of maggots were crawling under her skin. The thought almost made her shutter. By the morning they would be healed, or mostly healed. She felt oddly hot under the sheets and blankets. 

She kicked her legs trying to remove the sheets from her body. Usually any other say that would sound almost insane, there was no heating in the house, and at night her room was as cold as the outside world. But right now she felt like a furnace. The cool air against her skin felt almost like a heavenly kiss. She relaxed and closed her eyes again. Suddenly her stomach growled loudly. 

She turned onto her side, and her stomach ground even louder. She felt a pain slowly beginning to build in the center of her stomach like her abdomen was slowly being twisted into a knot. She wrapped her arms around her middle and squeezed her eyes trying to ignore the building hunger inside of her. For a moment she thought of sneaking out of her room and getting a snack, but then she reminded herself that Damara had locked her in. She was essentially trapped until the morning came. Well not exactly, if she was normal that might have been the case. But she was not. She could easily break the lock, but she wasn’t sure that Lady Dimitrescu would appreciate her door’s lock being broken. She would probably end up getting into more trouble than she was already in. 

Her stomach growled again, like two rabid wild animals fighting over a small scrap of meat. Her stomach growled at her again as if it had a mind of its own and was demanding sustenance at this very moment. Her body was flawed. When she had an impressive injury, one that might kill a normal human being, sometimes it diverted all of its resources into fixing the wound and didn’t save enough for the rest of her cells. Little wounds like small cuts weren’t a problem because they were a quick fix. The resulting consequence was an unyielding wall of hunger that consumed her. She hated those moments. She could and would eat anything and everything in her path. She gnawed on her finger, contemplating the thought. But she pulled it out of her mouth. No, it was a bad idea. The energy gained would only be used to regrow her finger. 

Kat growled and shut her eyes tucking her limbs under her body. She shut her eyes and waited for sleep to come. For what felt like hours sleep never came to her, but eventually she must have fallen asleep. Because she was woken up in the morning by a loud bang on the door.

She startled awake, she shot upright in her bed still on top of the sheets, her heart was pounding. The hunger inside of her stirred again, but she tried to ignore it. She needed to eat soon, or it was going to drive her up the wall. A moment later the door clicked as it was unlocked and Damara poked her head inside. “Oh good.” She said with a pleasant smile, she looked at Kat and for a moment her smile faltered, Kat heard her suck in a breath and a look came over her face that seemed to say ‘what the fuck am I looking at’ but Damara said nothing and Kat tried to ignore it. “Just checking to see if you were awake.” She said, with an almost nervous smile, before shutting the door. 

Kat made a face to herself, what had made Damara so concerned- She looked down at her arms. They were ashen and grey, the area under her fingernails were a deep purple as if every single one of them had a bruise under it. Kat’s eyes widened and she quickly hopped off of her head and ran towards the small vanity in the corner of the room. She looked into the mirror. Her face was the same shade as her arms had been. Dark circles had formed under her eyes, and a red blotch was forming in the corner of her eyes. 

Kat looked down and pulled up her shirt, she had lost some weight too. She could see her ribs. She tore off her shirt and changed her clothes as quickly as she possibly could. The hunger was consuming her now. She could hear it seeping into her thoughts. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat! She peeled off her bandages from her body and bunched them up leaving them on the vanity to clean up later.  This hadn't happened to her in so long.

She at least still had half a brain to remember to pull on a long-sleeved shirt, to hide the healed wounds that had now turned into scars that would forever mar her body. But she didn’t care about the scars, she had plenty of those. More than she could count, some of them she couldn't even remember where she had gotten them. She didn’t even bother with shoes, she wasn’t leaving the building, right? What was the need for shoes?

She wrenched the door open and ran down the hall, letting her short hair fall in front of her face trying to at least hide a little bit of her condition. She turned a corner and almost ran into Daniela. She skidded to a halt, falling down on her rear. 

“Watch it!” Daniela barked as she took a large step around Kat. She didn’t even look at her, Kat felt relieved. She pulled herself up off the floor and continued to run. She opened the door to the dining room and ran to the Kitchen. She thought she might have seen someone sitting at the table, but she didn’t pay them any mind. 

Her mind was clouding. She looked around the room. She saw the bowl of apples, but ignored it, if she had to eat another goddamn apple she might just go a little crazier. Protein. Protein. Her hunger seemed to sing in her mind. She walked over to the cabinets and pulled them open. 

She saw a basket of eggs on the bottom shapes of the cupboard. What were they doing down there? She dropped down to her knees and pulled the basket out, handling it with care like it was a basket of precious things that might break at the slightest mishap. Eeeeeeeeggs. Her hunger drawled in the back of her mind. 

She grabbed one egg and without even cooking it, she shoved the whole thing into her mouth and chewed. The shell broke with a crack, it almost felt like a balloon popping in her mouth, the slimy albumen slid onto her tongue. She crewed listening to the sound of the shell crunching in her mouth. She swallowed it, shell and all. And then ate another one and another. She ate four raw eggs until she realized what she was going and stopped. She put the basket back and stood up feeling slightly sick with herself. She slowly walked over to the fruit bowl and, sigh, grabbed an apple. 

She watched as her skin tone slowly returned to its normal shade of olive. The purple under her nails returned to its usual pinkish red. She relaxed further when the hunger finally went away, crawling back into the darkness where it belonged. There was an odd taste in her mouth, the only taste that could be left behind after eating raw eggs with their shells on. 

She was relieved that she had stopped when she did because she heard footsteps slowly making their way towards the door. They pushed open, the strange man she had seen a few days ago running like a lunatic into the kitchen was staring at her. Now ironic. 

He had a pair of sunglasses in his hand and his eyes shone with mild concern. 

“Are you alright?” He asked, he cocked his head to the side. 

“Mm hm.” Kat mumbled. He nodded, slowly, before stepping out, still looking just as shaken as he was before. 

  
  
  
  


Heisenberg stepped out of the kitchen doorway and moved to leave the dining room and go to Rosie’s room where he knew the nanny would be next.

He racked his brain, he was fairly certain that the nanny had looked different when running into the room. She looked more corpse-like ashen and bruised everywhere. Had he just imagined it? He couldn’t have. But when he went to check on her she looked just fine, like a normal human being. What the hell? 


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty Two

For some reason, Kat felt like she needed to sneak around. Her bare feet were silent when they carefully stepped across the kitchen floor. Maybe it was the fear of being seen again, already two people had seen her “condition” when it was at its worst. She didn’t want to run into any more people today, not like this. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Had Lady Dimitrescu’s brother seen her, or had it just been Damara? From the look on his face, he had seen her and had been rather spooked by it.

Kat pushed open the kitchen door and tip-toed into the dining room. It was empty. She looked around for Lady Dimitrescu’s brother, he still somehow looked scruffy. He was nowhere in sight. He must have left and gone somewhere else. 

Though Kat’s hunger had been subdued and pushed back into the dark depths where it belonged, but bit’s a piece still lingered inside of her. It always took a little while for her urge to eat everything in sight to fully disappear, she would be feeling like this for the rest of the day. She sighed to herself, she hated when she got like this. It reminded her of what resided inside of her and had buried itself into her very DNA. And it reminded her of what little control she truly had over it. 

When she was younger there were times when she would lose entire accounts of entire days, because her hunger had gotten the best of her. She could remember the first time she woke up, tasting the strange metallic tang of fresh blood in her mouth, human blood, only to find a body half ripped open a few feet from her. It had been horrifying, even more so when she couldn’t recall doing it. 

She was more sensitive to smells than that of a regular human. She could pick up even the faintest of scents. When she first walked into the dining room there was an array of new smells that slammed into her, like a wall. Her nostrils flared as they took in the new surrounding areas. She could smell the polish on the wood, and the wax from the candles. She could pick up the scent left behind by Lady Dimitrescu’s perfume. She felt her heart flutter for a moment, like a bird trapped inside of a cage begging, and longing to be free. But she pushed those feelings away. 

There was another smell that she picked up on that caught her attention, and made her hunger flare for a moment. Just a moment, it reared its ugly head. But she was able to suppress it and push it down. The smell of blood. Why did the dining room smell like blood? She walked around the table, slowly. The smell lingered above the table and in the air. 

Kat shook her head, she felt her stomach growl again. But she was not about to let her hunger take control over her again. She needed to get out of here. She trotted towards the doors leading into the dining room and wrenched them open. She took a giant sniff of fresh air, feeling relief once the hunger in her dipped back down into the dark depths.

Kat stepped into the hallway, a moment later a massive fall seemed to run into her and knocked her flat on her back. For a moment Kat squirmed and shifted trying to break free of whatever had fallen on her until she realized that it was soft. Like silk. Her eyes widened, she couldn’t see anything, but she knew what had happened. 

Kat felt every neuron in her brain short circuit. 

  
  
  
  


Alcina usually would condone running in her castle, any maid who would have done it in the past would have had at least a glare thrown at them, if she was feeling in a particularly foul mood she might take them down to the cellar, but that was on rare occasions. But right now she didn’t have time to follow even her own rules. 

Her daughters were waiting for her in the cellar, they were probably getting impatient. Her other two girls, she wasn’t particularly worried about, the one she was worried about was Daniela. She had a tendency to take things too far when she was unsupervised, if she got impatient and started early the likelihood of Daniela killing them before they were able to extract valuable information from them would go up. And the longer she waited the more time was lost trying to find the rest of the hunter’s group. And the longer her family stayed in harm's way. 

She wasn’t exactly running per se, she was just walking very fast. Fast enough that she felt the need to hold her hat on her head while she moved. Perhaps she was running. 

If there was one thing she did not consider when hiring a new person was the relative height difference. She wasn’t used to having to look down at the floor periodically to make sure a little human didn’t get underfoot. Her daughters were tall enough that when she was looking upwards, they were still in her vision. 

With Kat, however, she was much smaller than her daughters. If Kat were to accidentally step out in front of her, or get underfoot, Alcina simply wouldn’t see her in time. And that was exactly what happened just now. 

She hadn’t seen the tiny human come scampering out from the dining room. She hadn’t even noticed that a figure had moved from that location. Suddenly Alcina felt herself tripping. Falling was an unfamiliar feeling, she usually didn't trip over many things nowadays. She only _just_ managed to catch herself with her forearms. For a moment she had no clue what she had just stumbled over. She wasn’t someone who tripped over her own feet, she must have hit something. She waited for a moment, on the floor, staring dumbfounded into the empty hall in front of her, trying to figure out what the  _ hell _ she just tripped over. 

It only just occurred to Alcina that she had fallen over a  _ person _ when she felt something squirming underneath her. Alcina’s eyes widened, she suddenly sat up on her knees staring down at the tiny little human who still laid on the floor. Her limbs were splayed out like a starfish’s might be, and she was beet red. 

“Are you alright?” Alcina asked, raising an eyebrow. Kat didn’t even respond for a second. She just stared at the ceiling, her mouth opening and closing like a fish pulled out of water. Her eyes were wide, and her glasses were bent funny.

“I - I uh- I.” Was all Kat could say. Her voice reminded Alcina of static. Like the sound of a record playing trying to play a broken record. Kat remained on the floor for a moment longer, her eyes looked glassy. Alcina was concerned for a moment that she had somehow damaged Kat in some way to cause her to act so strangely. That same smell she had picked up from Kat the other day filled the air, it was sweet. Suddenly finding her voice Kat spoke, she shot up where she sat, her face still red as a beet. “I’m so sorry, I didn't see you coming!” She squealed out. Her eyes darted around, looking everywhere but at Alcina. 

  
  
  
  


For a moment it felt like Kat’s brain had gone blank. There were no thoughts running through her head for about thirty seconds. She was just floating in a blank abyss. And then suddenly she came back to herself. 

She was laying on the floor while Lady Dimitrescu was kneeling in front of her with a rather confused and concerned look on her face. Her face felt as hot as a stove, and she was sure that she was blushing uncontrollably. A slew of apologies fell out of Kat's mouth before she could stop them.

Kat dropped her face into her hands and let out a sigh, she felt her fingers curl, like she was trying to rip her own face off from embarrassment. Honestly, she would have preferred that to this right now. “I’m so sorry.” Kat mumbled out one last time before she heard Lady Dimitrescu pull herself back up onto her feet, her heels clicking on the floor. She pulled her hands away from her face and looked up to see a pale hand extending out towards her. 

Wordlessly she took it and she was pulled to her feet in one single swift motion.

“Where are your shoes?” An almost melodic voice asked. Kat looked up at Lady Dimitrescu, having to crane her neck upwards to look at her face, where she stared down expectantly at Kat. 

“I forgot them.” Kat managed to stutter out, her words felt heavy on her tongue. 

“ _ Please _ , go put them on.” Lady Dimitrescu sighed before she reached down and fixed Kat’s glass which sat crooked on her face. Kat went rigidly still when two of Lady Dimitrescu’s elegant fingers pinched the glasses’ temple and tucked it behind her head. They slid down her nose, which Kat pushed back up onto her face.

Lady Dimitrescu gave her a small smile before she brushed past her. Kat watched her walk away until she realized what she had been asked to do and turned, tearing her gaze away from Lady Dimitrescu’s form, to go back to her room. 


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote two chapters today :) enjoy!

Chapter Twenty Three

Daniela whipped around when she heard the cellar door open, she was hoping it was Mother, she was growing impatient. But to her dismay it was Damara who quickly descended the stairs, Daniela felt her shoulders drop. The hunter was unconscious, he must have exhausted himself trying to escape or possibly yelling, but the nanny (possibly the only person who might try to help him) wouldn’t have heard him as he was on the other side of the castle, chained to one of the cell’s walls.

Damara stopped when she was standing next to Eliane, who turned and asked her something, but Daniela barely noticed she was looking at the hunter. Couldn’t she just make a little cut? Just one? She pulled her sickle out of her pocket and stepped forwards into the cell, her blood-lust growing inside of her. Of course, Eliane had to ruin her fun. 

“Daniela wait, remember what Mother said?” Eliane asked, stepping towards Daniela and grabbing her arm, just in case she decided to ignore her, Daniela supposed. Daniela turned to glare at her sister, jerking her arm out of her grasp. She knew she was right, but she would never allow Eliane to have that victory. 

That was when Daniela noticed Damara looked rather disturbed. She wouldn’t look anyone in the eyes. Her eyes constantly darted around as if expecting something to pop out of the cellar’s dark corners and attack her. She jumped when Eliane wrapped her arm around her shoulder.

“Mari?” Daniela asked, stepping towards her troubled sister. Damara’s eyes looked distant like she was watching something happening in the future. “Mari?” Daniela asked again, a bit louder this time, tapping her youngest sister’s shoulder. Damara startled looking up at Daniela with wild eyes. She looked like she was one step away from attacking someone. She seemed to relax when she saw who she was with. 

“You wouldn’t’ve happened to’ve seen the nanny around, would you?” Damara asked, an uncomfortable smile creeping up her cheeks. Daniela had run into her but she hadn’t really  _ seen _ her. She was too busy trying to get the cellar as fast as she possibly could. In reality, she probably could have walked and wouldn’t have had to wait so long. But it was too late for that, she was already here. 

“No, not really.” Daniela said. 

“What does that mean?” Eliane asked, Daniela was ready to retort but Damara broke in just before she had been able to say anything. 

“Guys!” She said, looking between them, some of her expression was now partially masked by annoyance. She crossed her arms. “Can we just not fight right now?” She asked. Daniela and Eliane locked eyes for a moment as if they were trying to stare the other into submission. Daniela didn’t like to lose, especially to her sister, but right now she begrudgingly tore her gaze away from Eliane and looked back at her sister. 

She glanced back at Eliane who had a victorious smirk on her face. Daniela felt her jaw tighten. Oh, she wanted to punch that little smirk off of her face so badly right now. But she chose to ignore it. 

“I ran into her on my way here? Why are you asking?” Daniela asked. 

“Did you see her face?” Damara asked. She sounded almost urgent. Her eyes were almost begging. “Please tell me somebody else saw her.” She said. 

“No. Why?” Daniela said, a questioning tone in her voice. She looked at Eliane who was now standing behind Damara and shrugged, throwing her hands into the air.

“She looked like a corpse.” Damara said, she sounded almost breathless. Daniela looked at Eliane, who was currently scrunching her face up in confusion.

“You’ve- you’ve seen corpses before.” Eliane said slowly walking around Damara so she was facing her, she threw a glance in Daniela’s direction. Like she knew what the hell Damara was going on about. Daniela subtly shook her head, hoping that Damara wouldn’t notice.

“Yeah, but last I check, corpses  _ don’t move _ .” Damara said through clenched teeth, her voice rising slightly. Daniela could see her sister’s jaw tightening and her hands were balling into fists.

“Okay, okay.” Daniela said, raising her hands in surrender. 

“Maybe it’s a human thing.” Eliane offered her voice an octave high than it usually was, it was clear in her voice she thought it was a stupid answer, but it was all she had to offer. Damara turned to look at her, her eyes were half-closed and her mouth was partially opened in disbelief, she cocked her head to the side. Daniela joined her, raising her eyebrows. If Damara was doing it then she could do it too without getting called out. Eliane shot her a glare. Daniela stuck the tip of her tongue out at her.

Damara cleared her throat. Daniela and Eliane turned their attention back onto her. 

“I know we-” Damara moved her hand between the space between her and Eliane “-haven't been human for a while, and we know _jack shit_ about them. But I don’t think they are capable of _doing_ _that_.” Damara said, pursing her lips.

Eliane rolled her eyes. “It’s all I got-” 

Suddenly the door opened and Daniela heard heavy, slow footsteps descending the stairs. Finally! Daniela thought to herself, feeling a new rush of excitement fill her. The click of heels was heard as Mother grew closer. 

“I heard voices, I hope you three aren’t fighting.” Mother said. Daniela turned and made eye contact with both of her sisters. Damara looked away, sucking both of her lips into her mouth. Daniela and Eliane both had to fight away guilty smiles. “It’s too early for that.” Mother remarked. 

“It’s nine-thirty.” Eliane said once Mother was closer to them. Daniela remarked that she too looked a little disgruntled. 

“Too. Early.” She said softly. Eliane shut her mouth and looked down. 

Mother looked at the hunger hanging from the wall. “Would someone be a dear and wake him for me?” Mother asked. Eliane wordlessly stepped forward, but Daniela was the one who spoke. 

“Gladly.” She said. Eliane glared at her but did move out of the way to allow Daniela into the cell. 

Daniela paused when she was right in front of the hunter. His head hung limp and his hair was falling in front of his eyes. She grabbed his face, squishing his cheek. She allowed his face to drop, before wrenching her hand back and slapping him as hard as she could across the face. The sound of the slap echoed around the dark dungeon. The hunter startled awake. For a moment he panicked, uselessly kicking his legs and trying to pull his arms out of his restraints. A few fearful noises bubbled up from his throat. 

Daniela laughed maniacally. After a minute he stopped struggling, seeming to realize where he was. Daniela however hadn’t stopped laughing, a moment later she managed to control herself. Her stomach hurt. 

Mother stepped in behind her, ducking under the doorway. “Are you ready to talk?” Mother asked, her eyes narrowing. The hunter lifted his head, there was a giant red mark on his cheek, his eyes narrowed along with Mothers in defiance. Mother tutted and leaned against the stone-cold wall. “We have all day.” She said with a smile. 

Mother’s fangs glinted in the darkness. Daniela pulled her sickle out of her pocket ready to strike. 


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty Four 

Kat felt like she had just swallowed butterflies and they were fluttering around in her stomach. The smell of Lady Dimitrescus’s perfume lingered in her nose, and it was almost intoxicating. By the time she reached her room, she had almost forgotten why she had come there, her mind was so far in the clouds. 

Even after she remembered why she had walked all the way back to her room, she still felt like she was floating through the air surrounded by some euphoric cloud, high above the castle, walking on the clouds that covered the sky.

The thing that finally brought her back to her senses was the strange feeling that there was a shadow lurking somewhere in the corner of her vision, watching her every move. She stopped many times on her path back to Rosie’s room, turning to look behind her and to her side, but she saw nothing. She pursed her lips and walked into Rosie’s room pushing the door open. 

She noticed that she was still fast asleep in her crib. Her blankets had been kicked off of her and bunched up at the end of her crib in a tightwad, and her limbs were splayed out like she was some kind of oddly shaped starfish. 

Kat thought to herself if Rosie was asleep maybe she could go grab a book that she brought with her. She turned out of the room, sparing one last glance at Rosie's sleeping form, before walking down to the hall. That same feeling of being watched returned and she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. 

She walked a little faster to her room and wrenched the door open. She ran to the suitcase, which had still been left open on the floor. She rummaged around in it until she found what she was looking for. There was a small pile of books tucked away into the back of her suitcase. She pulled out a book with a soft cover that was bent up and creased and hugged it to her body. It was a copy of _Twilight_. She had read the series, once, when she was younger. If anything she liked the book for the nostalgia. It was something she read to get away from the world she lived in. An escape at a low point. And now it was the only thing that she had from her past. 

It was one of the few things, other than clothes, that she brought with her when she would skip around. She stood up and headed out of her room, back to Rosies. She felt that feeling again, finally fed up, she looked around more thoroughly. She walked to the end of the banister and looked down at the space beneath her. 

That was where she saw him. That same scruffy-looking man, Lady Dimitrescu’s brother was looking up at her from the bottom of the staircase. They locked eyes. He didn’t seem like he had any malicious intent towards her. In fact, he looked just about as startled as she felt. The look on his face would have been worn by a person who was just caught in the middle of a heinous act. 

Kat backed away and walked back into Rosie’s room. She slid down against the wall, she opened her book, and tried to read the first few pages. But she was too on edge to read now. She would read a paragraph and then her mind would wonder somewhere else, like if she should barricade the door, and then she would get down to the end of the page and realize that she had picked up nothing of what she had just read. So she would have to read it again, and the cycle continued. 

She finally grew bored with what she was doing. She closed the book and gently set it on the chair positioned right next to her, pressed against the wall like she was. She got up and checked on Rosie. She was still fast asleep and didn’t show any signs of waking soon. Kat sighed, there was nothing to do. 

She supposed she could go get something else from her room, that required a little less concentration. Like some paper and a pencil and she could just sketch for a while. She wasn’t particularly skilled when it came to drawing but that didn’t _stop_ her from doing it. She could flip through pages and pages of wonky-looking drawings of people whose legs were too long, their faces were uneven and their hands were a clump of lines at the end of an oddly drawn arm. 

She opened the door and looked out, she startled letting out a little squeak when she saw that the man was sitting next to the door. He looked up at her, with an indifferent expression.

“Hi.” She said she didn’t really know what to say, but she felt like she needed to say something. Why was he here? She asked herself, her inner voice harsh and panicked. Her voice sounded unnaturally loud against the quiet environment. 

“Hi.” He said in response, lifting his arm and giving a half-hearted wave. She felt a new wave of uncertainty and fear, why was he hanging around her suddenly? The only thought that now filled her mind was that she needed to get _away_. 

  
  
  
  


Alcina had just said to keep an eye on her. She hadn’t really gone into much detail, probably because she expected him to know what she was talking about. But he didn’t and instead of asking for clarification or details he just nodded along with her and tried his best not to look too confused. 

It felt wrong to just saunter into her space without a word, so he tried to keep an eye on her from a distance. But she had noticed him, and now it seemed like she was going to actively avoid him. She also looked kind of uncomfortable. If he was being honest he would have been as well. He sat down outside of Rosie’s room. Alcina just needed him to make sure that she didn’t wander too far into the castle and see something that she shouldn’t. 

“Hi.” She said. It was the first time that she had actually spoken to him. He responded back because leaving her little greeting unnoticed just felt wrong. He gave a short wave and she descended the stairs, occasionally shooting glances in his direction. He was expecting her to go into the dining room, but she suddenly made a sharp left-hand turn and bolted down the hall. Right in the direction of the cellar.

Heisenberg stood up, feeling his heart race in his chest before it dropped into his feet. Oh no! He needed to stop her! Was the only thing that he thought before he ran after her. Not even twenty minutes and he was already failing at his job. 

He should have thought this one thought a little more before acting. He probably shouldn’t have run after her like that. She was probably terrified at the moment. There now was a grown-ass man chasing after her, from what she could perceive, for absolutely no reason. She probably thought that he was going to attack her. 

And he probably would have thought this situation through a little more, but at that moment his mind was fogged with a single string of thought. Oh shit, Alcina was going to kill him. 

He saw the nanny glance behind her and let out a yelp when she saw him chasing after her. She picked up speed and curved around a corner. She was just a few steps away from the cellar door. Without thinking He turned the corner only to have a heavy mahogany door thrown at him. 

That was the other thing that Alcina had asked of him. Not to openly use his abilities around the nanny. At that moment, however, all he could think about was the giant mahogany door that was heading in his direction about to crush him. With a flick of his hand, he sent it in the other direction. Right onto the nanny. 

The door landed on her and when she hit the floor there was a crunch. She didn’t move after that, she didn’t even let out a cry of pain. Well, _that_ wasn't good. He felt a wave of panic rush over him, he ran towards her kneeling down. The upper waist and below were completely covered by the door. Oh god, did he just kill her? 

He lifted the door using his abilities. It hovered about three feet above her body now. He saw her eyes open and she looked at him with his hand extended. “How are you doing that?” She asked, her eyes widening with shock. He freaked out and dropped the door. 

This time there was a noise that came out of her. In the form of a long stream of curses that fell from her mouth along with a lot of screaming. “Holy shit! Oh my god, that fucking hurts!” She shrieked as blood bubbled out of her mouth and dribbled down her chin. Her arms trying to gain purchase against the floor and pull herself out from under the heavy slab of wood. 

He used his abilities once more to lift it off of her and settle it against the wall, where it had probably been before. He wasn’t exactly sure how this door had gotten like this, but he was pretty sure that it had something to do with Daniela. 

The nanny still laid on the floor sprawled out, her limbs in all sorts of awkward positions. “Yeah, crush my ribcage _and_ my legs why don’t you?” She asked, her voice now raspy and her breath gasping.

“How are you not dead?” He asked, ignoring her snarky comment, and standing above her at a loss of what to do now. She looked to glare at him. 

"Leave." She grumbled. 

"No." He said. She made a face and begrudgingly accepted his decision. There wasn't anything she could do right now was there? 

“Watch.” The nanny grumbled. He waited for a moment, at first there was nothing. Then she began to try to lift herself off the floor. He knelt down to help her up, it was the least he could do right? She batted him away and proceeded to half-heartedly flip herself onto her back with a grunt of pain, and pull herself upright against the wall.

Her chest was significantly flatter than it had been before. But after a series of clicks and cracking that made his stomach feel like it was doing summersaults, it popped back into its normal shape. The same happened with her legs. Eventually, she was as good as new. 

He now stared at her in mild horror. What had they just let into their home? She looked up at him sheepishly. 

“I can explain.” She said, not able to look him in the eye.

“I sure hope you can.” He said after a long moment of silence between them. 


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am again posting two chapters. :) it began as one before I decided to split them because I felt that together they were too long.

Chapter Twenty Five

Kat felt something like hope fluttering in her chest. He had powers! That meant he was like her, right? Well, not exactly like her, she couldn’t levitate anything. But she wasn’t alone! There was someone like her out there! 

He walked with her back to Rosie’s room. They now sat on the floor on opposite sides of the room, Rosie was still fast asleep. They didn’t say anything to each other for quite a while. But they would occasionally glance up at each other. Kat’s eyes would dart around the room and eventually, without fail, land on him. A few times their eyes met and they would instantly break the eye contact. 

Eventually, Kat spoke, unable to bear the silence any further. She looked at him feeling like she should say  _ something _ . “You’re her brother, right? I don’t think I ever got your name.” She said. He looked up at her from his slouched position on the floor. 

“Hmm?” He asked.

“What’s your name?” Kat asked, again. “I’m Kat, in case you didn’t know.” She added, He nodded.

“Heisenberg.” He said after a long, almost uncomfortably long, pause. Kat nodded and they went silent again. Heisenberg pulled something out of his pocket, his hand mostly obscured it. Kat squinted and shifted around trying to catch a glimpse of what it might be. After a minute she could discern that he had pulled a little bundle of wire out of his pocket and was now twisting it into a shape. 

Kat watched him, his rough fingers punched the wire and wrapped it around itself. She wondered what he was making, but stayed silent, and instead just watched. When he was done he set the creature he had crafted onto the ground. It looked like a little dog or a wolf. 

Heisenberg flicked his hand and the wire figure began to move across the floor. It chased its own tail, it leapt over a few blocks that were still left out on Rosie’s rug, and it ducked under the crib, ran a loop around the leg, and came back out to Heisenberg. He grabbed it and began to unfold it and reshape it into something else. 

When he put it down again it was in the shape of a dragon. The dragon had a long body and four limbs that stuck out like a lizard. Its head was round and its bottom jaw parted horizontally into two pieces. Two wire wings flapped and it launched itself into the air. It flew around the room, over Rosie’s crib and it landed on Kat’s head. She laughed and held up her hand. It crawled into her hand and jumped off, flying back to Heisenberg who caught it and began to once again reshape it. 

“How do you do that?” Kat asked after a minute. He chuckled, he seemed to like her awe. 

“I have telekinetic abilities.” He said, there was a smile on his face. She could hear something close to pride in his voice. 

“What are you?” She asked. His smile faltered for a moment. 

“I could ask you the same question.” He said, raising an eyebrow, a small smile pulled at his lips. 

“I asked you first,” Kat said, crossing her arms and pursing her lips. He snorted at her response. “Fine, you answer my question and I’ll answer your.” She compromised.

“Fair.” He said in response. 

“So what  _ are _ you?” Kat asked. 

“What do you mean by that?” He asked, her eyes narrowed and her voice grew a little colder. Kat kicked herself wondering if she had offended him. Perhaps she had used the wrong words. 

“What do the people of the village call you?” She asked. He seemed a little less tense after that. 

“I’m a werewolf.” He mumbled. He had pulled the dragon that he had made into a single strand of metal. He slowly began to roll it into a small spiral.

“A werewolf?” Kat asked, mildly surprised. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was expecting, but werewolf was not on the list she had in mind.

“Yep.” He twisted the spiral so that it made two lobes. The two lobes began to flap like the wings of a butterfly or moth and it slowly rose into the air. It fluttered around, the light catching the wire. 

“Can you transform? Is it only at the full moon?” She asked, suddenly very interested in what he had to say. She had never met someone who was like her before, she was excited to know more. Was it like the legends? She wondered.

“Yes and  _ no _ , I can transform whenever I see fit.” He said slightly distracted as the butterfly or moth fluttered back into his hand. His cycle of deconstructing it and reconstructing it into something new continued.

Kat was about to ask another question, but he interrupted her. “Now you have to answer mine.” He said. Kat rolled her eyes, but she humored him.

“I don’t know.” Kat said looking down at her hands, her fingers turned pinching a fingerful of her pants. “The first thing that comes to mind is zombie.” She said.

“That's a pretty broad spectrum.” He said, setting down a figure that looked something like a deer. It walked daintily around the room towards Rosie’s carpet, one foot at a time. Its head often came up from where it was “grazing” on the carpet. It suddenly charged and lept over the same blocks that the wolf had jumped over. 

“I know it’s broad, but I  _ really _ don’t know what I am, I’m just me.” Kat said. They fell silent again. He grabbed the deer when it trotted back up to him. He unwound it and stuffed the wire back into his pocket. Kat felt a little disappointed that she wouldn’t see any more wire creatures. 

Heisenberg sighed. “Alcina’s going to kill me when she finds out you know about this.” He said reaching into his pocket and pulling the wire out and stuffing it back. At first, Kat was a little confused as to why making little animals out of wire jump around was so bad. But then she realized he was talking about his powers. 

“What if she doesn’t find out.” Kat suggested. Heisenberg scoffed. 

“She  _ always _ finds out.” He said, giving her a hard look.

“Well if that's the case, we’re both screwed.” Kat said, slumping a little.

“But you have a very good point.” Heisenberg said there was a new gleam in his eye. His voice was quiet and he brought his hand up to his chin, Kat wasn’t sure if he was talking to her, or if she was talking to himself. She decided to respond anyway. 

“I thought you said she always finds out?” Kat asked, cocking her head to the side and crossing her arms. What was he up to? She wondered. 

“Yes, but what if we kept this between us?” He asked, there was a sly grin forming on his face. Kat was starting to have doubts, could she really trust him? Apparently, it was starting to show because he clarified it, quickly. “I mean you don’t tell about what you saw,” He pointed at Kat. “And  _ I’ll _ keep the fact that you're not a human to myself, we can help each other.” He said. The idea was tempting.

“Fine.” Kat said. “We have a deal.” 


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never thought that I would end up putting a warning on this fic, but here it is, just to be safe.
> 
> This whole chapter is just Alcina torturing the location of this poor man's teammates out of him.

Chapter Twenty-Six

He had to be close to breaking. They had done everything imaginable. But he still stared definitely at them from where he hung from the wall. His shirt had been cut off, a white-hot iron had been pressed to his skin. Daniela had cut off his  _ other _ pinky finger, and yet nothing. He had been beaten, cut, burned, and bruised, and yet he still had enough pride left in him to keep his mouth shut. 

Alcina had originally found it almost endearing. But now she was starting to get annoyed. And that annoyance was slowly melding into fear. She needed to find the rest of his hunting party before anyone else got hurt. 

Alcina grabbed the hot iron rod from the fireplace and pressed it to his skin. The hunter let out a cry of pain and tried to move away from it. But she pressed it harder into his skin. The smell of burning skin filled her nose. 

“Are you ever going to talk?” Alcina asked in the sweetest voice she could muster. He glared up at her with tear-filled eyes. 

“No!” He spat. Alcina chuckled and pressed the metal further into him. There was now a spot of blackened flesh in the middle of his stomach. The skin was crinkled and began to flake off. 

“Boy,” Alcina addressed the hunter. “You’re wasting my time, the longer this takes, the less merciful I will be.” She said.

“Do your worst.” The hunter said to her lunging forwards, Alcina didn’t even flinch. “I’m not scared of you!” He snarled. 

“You will be.” Alcina chuckled. “You said you want me to do my worst?” Alcina asked barely suppressing a chuckle as the hunter’s eyes began to widen with fear. They realized that they had messed up. And they knew that it was too late. 

Alcina allowed her claws to slide out of her fingers, when they were fully extended they were longer than his forearm. He stared at them with wide eyes. She brought the very tip of them and dragged them down his arm. He hissed in pain. 

“That all you got?” He snarled, a small smug smile formed on his face. Alcina smiled back. 

“I haven’t even started.” She breathed. “Girls.” She called over her shoulder. Her two other daughters quickly got up off the floor; they had been sitting on board out of their minds and quickly walked up the stairs. There was a flash of light as they left the room. Only Daniela remained. “Daniela.” Alcina chided. Daniela let out a disappointed sound. “Now.” She said softly. Daniela grumbled all the way she went up the stairs. 

Alcina rolled her eyes as her eldest daughter kicked the doors open and left. She kicked them out not because she thought it would be too graphic for them, no, she was certain that they had done much worse. It was more psychological. When they were with her they almost acted as a distraction. Now there was nothing, only her. And that was all the hunter could focus on now. She grinned at him. Slowly she pulled her black leather gloves off, she didn’t want to soil them. 

Using her claws she slowly sliced a slit horizontally across his stomach. He grunted in pain, she could see his teeth clenching together trying to hold in a scream. “Let’s make one thing clear.” Alcina said while she worked, almost absentmindedly. “I can keep you alive for as long as I like, I will not give you peace until you tell me where the rest of your hunting party is.” She said matter of factly. He choked on a sob when blood began to bead on his stomach.

She raised her finger and began to cut a slow vertical line on his stomach starting from the top of his belly to the top of his pants. The cuts on him looked something like an upside-down cross. Blood pooled from both cuts running down his body and collecting in the pant’s fabric. 

“Are you ready to talk?” She asked. He was trembling from the pain and she smiled at him when he cracked his eyes open.

“I’m not talking.” He half snarled and half sobbed. 

“I can make the pain go away if you talk.” Alcina offered. She saw his eyes flash, but he closed them shaking his head. 

“No.” He said.

“It’s always the stubborn ones that make themselves suffer.” She chuckled reaching into the center of the wound where all four lines met and pushed her fingers inside. He cried out in pain, and it quickly turned into a scream that filled the room, when she grabbed a hold of one of his organs and pulled, which wasn’t exactly sure which one, guess she would find out. It was his intestine. It fell out of him like a flesh-colored snake. He wailed, shaking and thrashing trying to escape from her. 

“STOP IT, PLEASE!” He cried. “IT HURTS!”

“Then tell me where your team is.” She said, her voice soft almost soothing. 

“No!” He cried, he was stupidly stubborn. Alcina huffed and rolled her eyes. He whimpered in pain. 

“Then you will just have to endure this until you do.” She said pulling harder until the organ was sticking freely out of his body like a snake slithering under a small crack in a rock. It was still attached to him. “And you will be surprised by what the body can endure before it lets itself go.” She said lowering her face so that her breath curled around his ear. 

He shuttered and with a sob, he pulled jerked his face away refusing to look up at her. “There’s a special place in hell waiting just for you!” The hunter spat, his voice a low gurgle. Tears freely ran down his face. 

“Yes.” She said pulling back and looking him in the eyes. “It’s called a throne.” She reached in again and moved her fingers listening to the sound of flesh squelched under her fingertips. He screamed and thrashed again, but it was no use. 

She jerked her hand back and out popped his kidney. He wailed and screamed and kicked. “STOP! Please, I’m begging you, just let me die!” He sobbed, saliva was building in her mouth from gnashing his teeth together in pain. It flung out of his mouth as he spoke. 

“Then tell me where they are.” She said through clenched teeth, her patients were growing them. She grabbed his face and forced him to look at her. He still looked at her definitely. She used her claws and stabbed him with them. She was aiming for his stomach. The puncture would cause the acid inside to spill out into his abdominal cavity. 

He now openly screamed in pain. He thrashed like a fish dropped on the ground. Eventually, he slumped to the ground, looking down at the ground, blood pooled in his mouth and the wounds on his stomach, and dripped onto the floor. His eyes were red and occasionally his chest would heave when he sobbed. She waited a moment. 

“Fine.” Was a weak reply, she hadn’t expected to hear, but it was a welcomed change. “I’ll tell you.” He sniffed. “You weren’t that far when we encountered you.” He began. “Just keep walking, you’ll find our camp.” He said. He sounded defeated, broken. Alcina smiled feeling victorious. But then paused, how did she know he wasn’t lying to her. 

“How do I know you’re not lying?” She asked, narrowing her eyes. 

“Do you think I would lie to you after what you’ve done, you bitch?” He snarled. She scowled and slapped him across the face. He was knocked backward, his back slamming into the stone wall. Little droplets of blood flew off of him.

She grabbed a fist full of his hair and wrenched his head upwards. “I can never be too certain.” She said with a snarl before she grabbed his head and twisted as hard as she could. There was a crack and the hunter dropped limp. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We will return to our regularly scheduled fluff and humor in the next chapter.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty Seven

When Alcina exited the cellar, after cleaning off her hands with a rag she found and pulling her gloves back over her hands, of course, she half expected her daughters to be waiting outside, listening as hard as they could for any sound. She always chided them with a smile on her face, they weren’t really doing anything wrong, but they were going what she asked of them to a T. She was sure that it had been encouraged by Daniela, she was always the one that sounded some way around what she said, or twisted her words into something she didn’t intend for them. 

But today they were not outside listening in, they were standing around the broom closet door just outside of the cellar whispering to each other. Alcina came up behind them and all three of them nearly jumped out of their skin when she spoke. “What’s going on?” She asked. They whipped around and relaxed when they saw it was her. 

“We smelled blood and went to investigate.” Eliane said. 

“Are you sure it wasn’t from the cellar?” Alcina asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“It wasn’t man blood.” Damara added and pointed to what the girls had been looking at. Alcina stepped forward and her daughters parted, giving her room. She saw what they were looking at, there was a substantial amount of blood pooled on the floor. It did in fact smell like woman’s blood. 

It couldn’t be Rosie, she smelled different because she was a child, and it couldn’t be Heisenberg. All that was left was Kat. Why was her blood here? Why was there so much of it? Alcina pursed her lips, thinking. Why was Kat here in the first place? She recalls hearing a bang while she was interrogating the hunter, but she hadn’t thought anything of it. Alcina glanced at the door leaning against the wall, noting that it had moved a couple of feet.

She gave it a closer look, there were marks on it that looked like fingers had dug into the wood at some point. Daniela had dislodged the door from its place in its hinges long ago when she had been careless when hunting down a victim. But she hadn’t left dents in the wood. 

Alcina let out a little grunt of annoyance that someone had marred her door. But there was nothing she could do about it so she turned and walked away, her daughters following her like ducklings. 

“Did you get any information from him, Mother?” Eliane asked trotting up and wrapping her hands around Alcina’s arm. She smiled down at her daughter and Eliane smiled back, her eyes as bright as stars. 

“Yes, I did my darling,” Her smile faltered. “But I am not sure how much I can trust it.” She said, there was a chance he was lying, and she didn’t want to risk anything. But she had an idea. 

“Damara, my dear?” Alcina addressed her youngest -no second youngest, it had almost been a year she still had to remind herself that Rosie now filled that slot.- 

“Yes, Mother.” Damara said bounding up to her and effectively pushing Eliane off of her. Eliane made a noise of protest as her fingers slipped off of Alcina’s arm. Eliane and Damara exchanged looks, Damara had a victorious expression, while Eliane looked sour, almost pointy. 

“I will need you to go on a scouting trip.” She said. Damara’s face suddenly fell. She hated going on scouting trips but there was a reason that Alcina sent her out the majority of the time. Each of her daughters’ swarms were comprised of most of the same insects, but the ratios varied from daughter to daughter. Damara’s swarm happened to be comprised mostly of moths, who were far quieter than the buzzing of flies or wasps, or the humming of a beetle's wings. 

When she wanted somebody to scout quietly, Damara was her best bet. 

“Mother-” Damara groaned, her shoulder slumping. Alcina turned and gently placed her hands on her daughter’s shoulder. 

“I know you despite scouting, but I  _ need _ you to do this.” She said softly. Damara looked down at her feet before she finally nodded in agreement. 

“Yes, Mother.” She said. 

“Thank you, dear.” Alcina said, kissing her forehead. 

  
  
  
  


Kat sat with, now very awake, Rosie in her lap. She cooed and giggled to nothing in particular as she hugged Beebear to herself. It was almost like she was talking to the stuffed toy, which when Kat thought too hard about it began to kind of freak her out, she tried not to look too hard into it after that. Heisenberg had taken the wire out of his pocket again and began to reshape it into another creature. But Kat was far too distracted with her book to watch him. 

Suddenly Rosie reached forward and grabbed a fistful of pages before she pulled on them. Kat didn’t have time to react before she ripped out a couple of the pages in half, cackling to herself. 

“Rosie!” Kat explained, taking the laughing infant off of her lap and setting her on the floor. She grabbed the shreds and tried to match them to their pages. “Damn it.” She swore, throwing a glare at the laughing child, for some reason she had the sense that this kid knew what she was doing. “My book, do you have any tape?” She asked. 

Heisenberg shrugged and then continued on this little animal figure. Kat was starting to think it looked like a giraffe. Kat huffed, the response was unhelpful. Kat placed the ripped page pieces into the crease of the book and shut it. 

“You know there’s an entire library, you can just get a different one.” He said absentmindedly. Kat’s head perked up. 

“Library?” She asked. He nodded with a look on his face like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“This is a castle, of course, there is a library.” He said. 

“There’s a library and I didn’t know?” Kat asked, silently, wondering to herself why Lady Dimitrescu hadn’t shown it to her, but she pushed it out of her mind, deciding not to worry about it. She leapt up, startling Heisenberg, whose face had morphed into something of concern. She needed to find this room now! “Where is it?” She asked.

His eyes darted around the room, he looked like he now regretted telling her of the castle’s library. He sighed. “I’ll show you in a minute!” He said waving her arm at her as if he was shooing a pesky fly away, turning back to his giraffe. Kat took that time to run and drop her book off in her room before she ran back. 

“Alcina doesn’t like people running in her castle.” Heisenberg commented once Kat darted back into the doorway. 

“Oh, oops.” Kat said under her breath. Well, it was too late now. All she could do was hope she didn’t find out. Kat stood in the doorway for a couple of minutes as Heisenberg continued to twist wires. The moment Kat slumped down against the doorway, he decided to be done with what he was doing. 

He smirked at Kat when he passed her in the doorway. He did that on purpose, Kat knew it. She made a face at him, but got onto her feet, grabbed Rosie, and followed him. They didn’t talk while they walked, only the sounds of their footsteps echoing in the empty castle walls. And the soft clinking of the wire animal walking in front of them.

They walked until Heisenberg turned and pulled open twin doors. Kat stepped carefully inside marveling at the bookshelves that were far taller than she was. There had to be at least a couple hundred books, maybe even a thousand books in here. This was amazing!

He pulls out a chair, at a round table tucked away in the corner of the room. The sire giraffe jumped onto the table and turned into a ball, resting its head on the tabletop. Kat goes searching through the shelves until she finds something that looks interesting. And in a dialect that she could understand. She saw some book titles that were in Romanian, and others in a text that she couldn’t discern where it came from. When she sat down Heisenberg was watching her again. There was something in his eyes, it was like he was staring at a blob trying to figure out what shape it made. 

“Where are you from?” He asked, cocking his head to the side and threading his fingers together. 

“What do you mean?” Kat asked. 

“Well you didn’t just fall from the sky, you had to have come from somewhere.” He said. 

Kat had many smart replies at the ready but she suppressed them and decided to answer honestly. She hadn’t thought about this topic in years. “I come from Racoon city.” She said, placing the book on the table and opening it. 

“What’s it like?” He asked. 

“It doesn’t exist anymore.” Kat said, beginning to read the first few pages.

“What the hell does that mean, entire cities don’t just disappear.” Heisenberg said with a chuckle. Kat picked up the book and looked at him over the edge of it. 

“This one did.”

“How?” 

“It got vaporized.” Kat said now trying to focus on reading and not the deafening boom that still lingered in her ears whenever she thought about it. And the almost blinding light that when she closed her eyes and thought hard enough she could still see. “By a bomb.” She added. 

Heisenberg’s eyes widened. “........What?” He asked, his voice a little higher. 

“You heard me.” Kat said over the edge of the book before disappearing behind it. They went silent after that, the silence was filled with a heavy tension that seemed to suffocate the air, like a crack in a wall filled with cobwebs. It was Heisenberg who broke the silence after a minute.

“How did you end up like this?” He asked. His voice was soft like he knew he was prodding a sensitive topic but decided to do it anyway. 

Kat looked away from the words on the page and instead looked at the blank part that was an almost golden color. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to reply, she had never talked about it to someone. She never had anyone to talk about it. She finally lowered the book, and decided to speak.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> backstory time!

Chapter Twenty Eight

_ Not even a hundred feet before they would have escaped into the forest to their salvation, was when they were ambushed. There had to have been at least thirty of them, maybe even forty, all shambling and reaching for them with cold, rotting hands. Kat managed to whack down at least three, but they were starting to come at her in twos. It was becoming harder and harder to fight them off.  _

_ They had already gotten Simon, Kat could see him shambling in the crowd, his arms outstretched as he mindlessly crawled forward, one little half step at a time. Along with him, there was a woman who appeared to be in a worse shape than Simon was, her neck was ripped open and blood oozed freely from the wound. Kat struck her down first and then turned to Simon. Kat could see that his finger was missing, where one of those monsters had bitten him. The blood that oozed from his wounds was thick and almost black in color. His eyes were clouded over and his skin had grown deathly pale. He stepped towards her groaning. His mouth hung open and drool was building under his tongue and beating in the middle of his lip where it then dripped down.  _

_ Kat mustered all of her strength she had and ran at him. He tried to encircle his arms around her, trying to catch her, but he was sluggish and she easily evaded capture. She closed her eyes, part of her was trying to keep her from doing this, it was Simon, her friend since middle school. But she forced herself to comply, she felt herself visibly shutter when she heard the cracking of his knee joint. Simon fell to the ground, seemingly unaffected by the new wound on his leg. He tried to get back up, but his now lingered appendage collapsed out from under him and he fell onto the dusty ground. Kat raised her crowbar and slammed it down onto Simon’s head. It broke like a watermelon with a sharp crack of his skull splitting in two.  _

_ She didn’t have time to mourn his loss for a second time, she had to fight the next zombie that was heading her way. They were now coming at her in threes and it was impossible to fight them all at once. While she was beating one, another was right behind her ready to strike, and another was lurking in her blind spot. She needed another person to have her back, but she was alone. Alison and Katie were together defending each other. They couldn’t get to Kat, there was a wall of zombies that kept them from doing so.  _

_ Kat continued to smash through them until her arms hurt and she continued to do it even after. Her arms stung, begging her to stop and rest for a moment, just a moment, but she couldn’t afford that, if she stopped they would catch her. She faltered when she saw a zombie, with its stomach ripped open and its organs spilling out down its front, its intestines hanging out like rope and swinging as it walked, grabbed Alison, and threw her to the ground. Shortly after another one, with half of its jaw detached, grabbed Katie and did the same thing. She stalled just long enough for the small horde of zombies around her to gain the upper hand. She felt a surprisingly strong grip for a dead person, grab her crowbar and wrench it out of her hands. She tried to pull it back but another grabbed her and threw her just like it had done to her friends to the ground.  _

_ She felt rough, cold hands grab her arms and legs holding her down with her limbs splayed out. She realized they were oddly coordinated for a pack of mindless, undead creatures. It sent a shiver down her spine. That meant that…  _

_ Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps. The group of zombies that were now standing around doing nothing, parted to let a much larger and far more dangerous-looking creature through. The zombies making way for it almost seemed to bow to them as they walked through. Kat looked up at the creature with fearful eyes.  _

_ Whatever this thing was, it seemed far more aware of its surroundings than its minions. It looked down at Kat and it smiled. It barked something that was in a language that Kat could not understand and the zombies dragged her closer. Kat scrunched up her eyes as the skin on her arms was rubbed off as it was pulled against the ground.  _

_ This creature was huge, it had to have been at least eight feet tall. Its skin was almost grey, like a corpse that had been left out in the wilderness for a month. Its legs and arms, anywhere that Kat could see, it had stretch marks, like it had suddenly rapidly grown in size and the skin had been stretched to its limits.  _

_ It made was silent, it simply looked at the zombies holding her down as if it was telepathically speaking to them, and the zombies, with inhuman strength, flipped her over onto her stomach. She felt their hands leave her limbs, she tried to scramble to her feet and leave, but the other creature quickly pressed her back to the ground. Her chin smacked painfully into the ground and she grunted when she bit her tongue, the taste of her own blood filled her mouth. She turned her head, when she felt the creature rip off her pant leg, the sound of fabric tearing filled the air. She felt a wave of anxiety course through her and her heart beat faster. She didn’t have time to react when it sank its teeth into her, she screamed so loudly that her voice cracked and no sound came out after that. But something in its saliva seemed to numb the pain, and it also was beginning to make her head feel like it was filled with stuffing.  _

_ She tried to push herself up off the ground, but her limbs suddenly felt weak, like there were lead weights attached to them. All she could do was watch as the creature slowly stepped toward her friends. It kneeled in front of Alison, drool spilled down its chin, Alison managed to break free from the zombie's grip for just a moment. She grabbed a knife that was stored away in her pocket. She stabbed the knife into the creature's arm. The creature looked at the new wound, its face unphased, if anything it only looked mildly annoyed. It grabbed the knife and allowed it to fall onto the ground. Kat watched in awe and horror as the wound healed up in a matter of seconds.  _

_ Finally, exhaustion grabbed a hold of her and she slipped into darkness.  _

  
  
  


_ When Kat woke, it was like nothing had happened. They were gone, simply vanished from existence. The only evidence that the horde and -whatever the hell that creature was- was there was the stinging pain in her leg. Everything else looked absolutely normal. Even her crowbar had been returned to her, placed neatly in her right hand which had been crossed over her chest. She was also lying face up.  _

_ She sat up, her head swam slightly, but it was bearable. Katie and Alison were waking up around this time too. Their eyes met as they pushed themselves to their feet. They grabbed their things which had been placed beside them neatly and stepped into the forest.  _

_ The sound of leaves crunching under their feet filled Kat’s ears and, for a little bit, acted as a distraction from the reality that she was now facing. But eventually, her mind drifted back to the bite, it was starting to throb from the excessive stress put on her leg now that they were walking up a hill. They got to the top and Kat felt a little relief. She turned and looked at the small patch of industrialization now at least a mile away. She turned away from it unable to look at it any longer.  _

_ They had gotten far into the woods, it had to have been a couple of hours since they left the city, it was starting to get dark out. Katie stopped walking. Kat and Alison continued, they made eye contact but looked away quickly. Alison was already looking paler than she usually did and a strange white spot in the middle of her pupil was forming. Kat stopped when she heard the click of a gun. She whipped around to see Katie pointing it at her and Alison. She had pulled it off a dead body, a while back, but she had never used it before now.  _

_ “Katie, what are you doing?” Kat asked, stepping towards her, reaching her hand out so she may take the gun away. Tension filled the air suffocating it like smog.  _

_ “We made an agreement, after Simon was bitten if anyone else was infected we would end it before we became a threat,” Katie said her voice shook, and so did her hands. Kat looked away, she was right, they had made an agreement. On paper it seemed easy enough, but now that she was faced with the reality of it all. She was scared. She was sure that Katie was too.  _

_ The bite on Katie’s arm oozed blood, it dripped down her elbow and onto the ground.  _

_ “Katie, we’ll figure something out, there has to be a cure-” _

_ “There is no cure!” Katie screamed. “We’re going to turn in a matter of  _ **_days_ ** _ , and then what?” She asked, clenching her teeth. “We’ll just wander the forest as a puppet to this damn virus?” She regained her grip on the gun and pointed it at Alison when she stepped forward trying to calm the situation. Kat stepped in front of her.  _

_ “Katie, we  _ **_will_ ** _ figure something else out, there has to be a different way.” Kat said. She stepped closer to Katie. It was a poor choice. There was a loud bang, Kat’s ears rang and she was thrown back. A sharp pain pierced through her chest. Her eyes widened, she knew what had happened.  _

_ “Kat!” Alison screamed, running towards her. There was another bang and there was a thud along with a loud rustling of leaves. Kat lifted her head, her vision swimming, and black eating at the edges. The last thing she saw was Katie raising the gun to her own head and firing. Kat blacked out after that.  _

  
  
  
  


_ Kat… woke up? She sat up feeling her body. She looked down at her chest to see there was a hole in her shirt with a massive bloodstain on it. Her hands began to shake, it was morning now. The sun was just rising over the horizon. She looked at her sides where she sat her friends, lying dead on the ground around her. She was too shocked and stunned to scream. But she felt tears welling into her eyes. She remained on the ground, pulling her knees to her chest, silently crying to herself rocking back and forth. Why was she alive? She wondered. _

_ Planes flew overhead. Their engines roared and caused the ground under her to tremble. She watched it curiously. One flew directly over the city. Something fell out of it. She couldn’t see what it was, but when it made contact with the ground a massive ball of light expanded from it enveloping the city. Kat dropped to the ground and covered her head, her ears were ringing and she felt thick blood bubbling from them now. Kat turned her face to it faced the ground, her eyes widened with shock.  _

_ She felt a scorching wave of heat wash over her. She screamed as it enveloped her, her skin boiled, her flesh forming welts and bloodied holes. The tears in her eyes boiled and turned into steam, as did the saliva in her mouth. The forest around her burst into flame.  _

_ She looked up when the heatwave had passed. Her hair had been burned off and there were welts on her exposed scalp. Her skin, cracking and flaking off of her in large chunks, only for it to regrow moments later, tiny patches on her now exposed muscle turning into entire swaths of new baby soft skin. The new skin was paler, no longer tanned by the sun.  _

_ Kat stood in the burning forest, and slowly she stepped further into it.  _

  
  
  
  


Kat sniffed and felt a wet sensation on her face. She hadn’t even realized she had been crying. She looked up at Heisenberg who blinked a few times, opening and closing her mouth. But he had nothing to say. Rosie looked up at her with a worried expression on her face. She reached up and touched Kat’s arm. Kat smiled down at her.  __

The door to the library suddenly opened, Kat furious wiped her tears away and tried to hide any evidence of her tears. She picked up her book and tried to pretend she was invested in it, flipping to a random page. Heisenberg did the same thing grabbing a random book off the shelf and opening it quickly. Kat looked over and kicked him. 

“Your book upside down!” She hissed. He made a face, that seemed to say ‘oops my bad’, and put it the right way. Daniela stepped into the room looking around. She spotted them and pulled out of the room. 

Kat heard her say, “They're in here Mother.” 


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty Nine

“There you are.” Kat heard Lady Dimitrescu say as she stooped through the doorway. Her pale hands grasping the sides of the door frame to pull herself through. Kat felt her heart rate speed up, and Heisenberg turned to give her a strange look, his nostrils pulsing. He cocked his head to the side before turning to look at his sister. 

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite sister.” Heisenberg said, putting the book he had been “reading” down onto the table with a thunk and turning away from it, as his sister approached them, her footsteps were slow and deliberate like a leopard stalking its pretty. She eyed them like she thought they were hiding something. Lady Dimitrescu looked at the book over Heisenberg’s shoulder. 

“You don’t look like someone who would read Moby Dick.” She commented, Kat felt her heart drop into her stomach, and she watched as Heisenberg's face faltered slightly. She had the strangest sensation that they were busted, but for what? Lady Dimitrescu’s voice was soft and her eyes narrowed with suspicion. Kat got the sense that she was irritated in some way and she felt part of her wanting to shrink back, but she stayed still looking up at the tall woman. Her daughters came in through the doorway behind her, standing in a line effectively cutting it off as a source of escape. Kat gulped slightly. She didn’t like this. She was starting to feel like a trapped animal. 

“Why are you here Alci?” Heisenberg asked, Kat could hear the commanding tone he was trying to portray, slip. His voice losing all of its humor, and his smile faded. His eyes were challenging with a hint of fear, and hers were challenging right back, no fear was present. Kat looked between both Lady Dimitrescu and her brother. She could feel the tension rising, as thick as tar. 

“I came to ask a question.” She said Kat and Heisenberg exchanged glances out of the corners of their eyes, Lady Dimitrescu didn’t wait for either of them to respond. “We found blood in the broom closet near the cellar.” She explained. 

Kat’s eyes widened, but she held her tongue from gasping. They should have cleaned up the blood! How could they have been so stupid? Kat looked around Lady Dimitrescu to see Damara looking at her with narrowed eyes. She shyly waved at her, but Damara didn’t wave back. In fact, her narrowed eyes turned into a full-fledged glare. Kat looked away, turning her attention back onto Lady Dimitrescu. 

Unfortunately, Lady Dimitrescu had noticed the slight shift in Kat’s face and was not turning her attention onto her. “Kat.” She addressed her. Kat straightened, trying to ignore the way her heart fluttered when she heard Lady Dimitrescu’s voice, despite the condescending tone. “Is it your blood?” She asked. There was something deep inside Kat that told her Lady Dimitrescu already knew it was her blood. She wasn’t exactly sure how she figured it out. But if one thing was for sure, lying would result in a negative consequence. 

  
  
  
  


Alcina raised her eyebrows. The nanny’s face darkened with blush. “Yes, it’s my blood.” Kat finally said with a heavy sigh. So it  _ was  _ her, she thought it smelled like woman’s blood. Why had she been so close to the cellar in the first place?

“How did it get there?” Alcina asked, her eyes raking over Kat searching for cut marks, or anything that would indicate a substantial amount of blood loss. That same damn smell filled the air. What was that damn smell? But that sweet smell was accompanied by the bitter scent of fear. She saw nothing, not even a mark, just flawless skin, and yet the metallic taste of blood still lingered around her. 

The nanny smiled sheepishly and began to fiddle with her fingers. “Well, you see I- uh,” Kat said, looking down at her feet. She stuttered over her words. Alcian cocked her head to the side. “I’m on my period and- and I bled through my- my pants.” She said looking back up at her, her face darkening even further, at this rate it wouldn't surprise Alcina if the woman passed out from the amount of blood rushing to her head. That explained the blood, but not the location.

“Fair enough.” Alcina said straightening up and squaring her shoulder. She would deal with the rest of the situation later, right now she had other things to do. She glanced at Kat one more time, the small woman was tense. The smell of her fear masked that other newer smell. She wasn’t sure she could trust Kat’s words, in fact, she didn't but she could deal with that later. Alcina narrowed her eyes before she turned and stalked away. 

Eliane and Daniela parted for her when she stooped out of the doorway. 

  
  
  
  


When Alcina and her daughters left, Heisenberg and Kat both let out a breath of relief. He hadn't quite realized he had been holding his breath until now, but the fresh air in his lungs felt good. He stared at Kat, who was paler than she had been before. 

“Are you actually-?”

“No.” Kat said quickly looking away. He fell silent again. Well, they were fucked. 

He couldn’t help but smirk at her. She had balls: one, for lying to his sister's face like that, it didn’t matter if Alcina bought it or not, it was the fact that she had the guts to do it in the first palace that shocked and baffled him. Two, the smell that was surrounding Kat like a cloud. He knew what that smell meant. Not only did she lie to Alcina’s face, she wanted his sister to screw her senseless. 

“What?” Kat asked when she finally noticed that he was looking at her. She turned to look at him, her brows furrowing. “WHAT?” She asked a little louder when he started to chuckle. He was practically howling with laughter after a few seconds. “WHAT IS SO FUNNY?” Kat shouted after a minute. He managed to calm himself down enough to speak.

“You have some guts.” He said. 

‘What’s that supposed to mean?” Kat asked leaning back in her chair and scrunching her face up in confusion. 

“You just lied to her face,  _ and _ you have a crush on her.” He said between bouts of laughter. Kat’s face went bright red and he fell back into a laughing fit. He couldn’t believe this woman, did she have a death wish? He thought to himself, that could be the only answer. 

“I- I, no I don’t!” She said looking around, the room, she looked anywhere and everywhere but him. Rosie was now giggling along with him, rocking in Kat’s lap. Kat grabbed her shoulders to steady her so she didn’t fall off. Unlike his niece, he knew what was going on. 

“Yeah,” He laughed “you, do.” Kat pursed her lips and crossed her arms, but she didn’t argue back this time. She wouldn’t look at him, whenever she looked at him, she would avert her gaze to elsewhere. He eventually calmed down and they sat in silence again.

He looked at the book he had left on the table. Moby Dick. He opened the cover. He supposed he would give it a try. Kat got up and sat Rosie on her seat while she went to go find another book that more suited her interest.

“Are there any Isaac Azimov books in here?” Kat asked. 

“Yeah, they're in the science fiction section.” Heisenberg said, pointing. Kat walked over to the small shelf. Alcina and her daughters weren’t huge fans of science fiction so the section was rather small. 

“Ooh, I Robot.” Kat said from the corner of the room, her voice slightly muffled because she was facing away from him. He didn’t respond to her. She came back to the table and picked Rosie up, putting her in her lap before she sat down. 

  
  
  
  


Damara stood outside the door listening to their conversation. She knew it was rude to listen in to conversations that one was not a part of, but she needed to know more about this woman- no, creature, she was no human. She was trying to take in what she had just heard. 

Slowly she crept away from the door, once they had gone silent. After a minute, a single thought entered her mind. Kat had to _go_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh oh


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty 

They had moved back to Rosie’s room; they were now sitting next to each other about three feet apart. Kat was immersed in her book, Heisenberg could see her eyes darting back and forth as they ran across every letter on the page. Every minute or so the sound of a page turning was the only other sound that filled the room other than their breathing. Heisenberg found that he had no interest in Moby Dick, he had quickly abandoned the futile attempts to read the words on the page. He found that he would read it and then have to read it again and again trying to figure out just what the hell was going on.

He instead turned his attention to folding up his wire into a shape to make it move. He was trying to construct a horse, but he just couldn’t get the proportions right. When he had finished the first time the horse looked wonky and lopsided so he decided to do it again. Somehow the second iteration of it was even worse than the first one. He was now on his third try. He finished it and decided that it looked terrible. He squished the sculpture into a wad of wires and stuffed it back into his pocket.

Great. He thought to himself, huffing into the silence. Now he was bored and Kat seemed more interested in that book than doing anything else. He tried to sit still but found himself shifting around and fidgeting: crossing and uncrossing his legs, fiddling with his fingers, gnawing on his nails, sometimes he would tap his foot. At which point, Alcina usually as him if he could sit still for five minutes, to which he would respond by tapping faster and louder. He didn't do that anymore because one day she grew fed up with it and threw the book she was reading at him, it happened to a very thick hard covered book. The only time that Heisenberg could really sit still was when he was eating, and when something had captured his attention to a degree that he simply didn’t want to look away. This situation provided neither of that criteria. 

Finally, he spoke, he had to, the silence and nothingness was starting to become unbearable. He had no clue how Kat or anyone was able to sit that still for so long. “You’re a terrible liar, you know that?” He said putting his hands behind his head. Kat slowly looked up from the book she was reading and looked at the far wall that sat across from her, almost like she expected him to be there. She flipped the book onto her leg to keep her page. Then she sighed and turned her head towards him, her lips were pursed. 

“Yes, I’m very aware of the fact that my skills are lacking when it comes to avoiding the truth.” She said with a sharp glare, picking her book back up, and preparing to read it, but then set it down in her lap, her thumb marking her page. “I’m just shocked I’ve managed to get away with it _twice_ .” Kat said, absentmindedly. Heisenberg's eyes widened. She had lied to her face twice? She really _did_ have a death wish. She picked the book back up, scrunching her face up. “Damn it I lost where I was.” She grumbled. 

“You got away with it _twice_?” He asked. “Do you have a death wish?” He chuckled, his shoulders shaking. She lowered her book and glared daggers at him. 

“Apparently.” She sighed. “I got away for it, for now, I think she’s catching on.” Kat said, putting her book back down, but not before dog-earring the page and closing it, with a snap. She sighed and sat it down next to her. She stared at the wall in front of her, her eyes were glossed over. 

“When was the first time?” Heisenberg asked. 

“The first what?” She asked, tearing her gaze away from the wall, and looked at him, her eyes slightly wide. 

“The first time you lied to her face.” He clarified, moving his hand in a circular motion, he tried to hide the snark in his voice, but the way her brows furrow told him that he hadn’t done a very good job of it.

“When I came back from the village.” Kat said. 

“What were you lyin’ about?” He asked, raising an eyebrow and cocking his head to the side. 

“Why I was late.” Kat responded simply. 

“Why _were_ you late?” He asked. 

“I got attacked by…. something, I don’t know what it was.” Kat said, closing her eyes as if she was trying to visualize it. She squeezed her eyes shut and her hand came up to touch her arm just under the curve of her shoulder. 

Heisenberg felt a wave of anxiety wash over him. The grin on his face slowly faded away. He could feel his hair stand on end. His wolves could sometimes get a little riled up when he was gone when he was not around to establish order. “What did they look like?” He asked, daring to prod a little further. He could feel his anxiety bloom into worry.

“They were hairy and big.” Kat said motioning with her hands, holding them out as far as she could stretch them without touching him. 

He swallowed feeling a bit more concern filling his head. “Got on. What were they doing?” He asked. He was already getting an idea. 

“One was grey, and the other was jet black. They were fighting, the black one won.” Kat said, softly. “Then he changed me, and he caught up to me, obviously.” She added.

“What do you mean by won?” He asked. He felt his concern growing and morphing into something else. 

“They killed them.” Kat said matter of factly like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Heisenberg leaned against the wall staring up at the ceiling, fighting among his ranks was not a good sign. He let out a heavy sigh that made his stomach feel like a heavy stone had just been dropped into the center. 

“Damn.” He said softly. 

  
  
  
**A Few Hours Later**

Damara stood on the balcony, her hands gripping the chilled metal, the sun was starting to dip below the horizon, golden rays were slowly retracting making room for the darkness, and was slowly seeping into the corners of the world as night prepared to come. It was almost time for her to go scouting. 

She watched as the last of the sun dropped down below the horizon. With that, she climbed over the rail on the balcony and allowed gravity to do the rest. Halfway through falling, she transformed into a swarm of moths and various other insects but mostly moths. The moth’s wings were almost silent. 

She soared through the air twisting and turning, folding and curling. She flew down to the forest, following the path she had taken where she was supposed to meet up with Eliane and Mother, but instead found her battered and broken almost-corpse. She pushed the thought out of her mind, she couldn’t allow herself to get distracted now. She needed to look for any signs of humans lurking in their forests. 

She allowed herself to descend lower and lower until she was almost touching the tops of the tallest trees. She searched weaving through the branches. She thought she wasn’t going to find anything until she spotted something that looked like embers glowing on the ground, and three shadows were sitting around it.

She allowed her swarm to lower itself to the tops of trees. Her moth’s thin little legs grabbed a hold of the bark on the branches and the truck, and she listened to what the humans were saying. 

“What are we going to do, Michel?” The woman asked. The two men sat somberly around the fire, the golden light caused their shadows to race along the ground and crawl onto trees.

Damara allowed one or two moths to flutter down and fly among the humans. She fluttered above their heads.

“I don’t know.” The man said. Damara presumed his name was Michel. He brushed back his dark hair that had fallen into his eyes. 

“We need to ambush them when they least expect it.” The other man said slamming his fist into his open palm. 

“That’s suicide, Justin.” The woman said wrinkling her face into an unattractive expression.

“It’s the only choice we have, we are running out of options, we have to act now!” The other man, Justin, said. Damara noted that in her mind, they were running low on ammo. 

“There has to be some way to get Timothy out of there.” Michel said with an angry grunt. He threw his head back and noticed the moths fluttering above his head. He made a face, but then shrugged and looked back at the burning embers.

“That’s my point.” Justin said, gesturing a hand at the Michel. “Timothy is running out of time, we have to get him out of there.”

“And what if he’s already dead, we would have wasted valuable ammo and energy.” The woman said, seemingly the only source of reason in this group. 

“You know for someone who seemed so close to him, you’re surprisingly cold.” Justin said with a smirk on his face. 

“I’m just thinking about the possibilities.” The woman said. “He could already be dead.” She said. 

“No!” Michel shouted pointing his finger at the woman. “He’s not dead and we’re going to get him out of there!” He growled. 

‘It’s too dangerous we’re outnumbered!” The woman said. “Michel listen to me, he’s inside the castle, we have no means of-”

“Bullshit!” Michel bellowed, the woman kept trying to talk reason into him, but her voice was overpowered by Michel’s shouting. “We ambush them tomorrow night, this conversation is over.” WIth that Michel got up and stalked away from the fire and ducked into a small tent.

The woman sighed to herself. Justin got up and went into his own tent. Only the woman was left. Damara slowly rose above the trees. She had gotten what she needed to know and now it was time for her to leave.

She rose above the trees, her swarm masked by the darkness, and flew back to the castle. 


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-One 

**One Hour Before**

“What were those creatures?” Kat asked softly, looking at him, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

“They were my wolves.” He said, pushing himself to his feet. “They sometimes get out of control when I’m not around.” he explained, scratching the back of his head. 

“Where are you going?” Kat asked her head following his movements as he walked around her and to the door. He grabbed the door frame and looked back at her.

“I need to get them under control, I won’t be gone long.” He said, trying to rescue her. She looked like she was starting to get worried.

“Now long is ‘not long’?” Kat asked. 

“A day or two.” He said before walking out of the door. He needed to find his sister, she wouldn’t like him just walking out on her without a word. She’ll probably be irritated at both, but less so if he just sucks it up and tells her now. He stepped out of Rosie’s room and walked down the hall to the living room. That was always the first place he looked when he was searching for his sister. When she wasn’t doing much she liked to sit in her favorite chair and read a book. Again he couldn’t understand how someone could sit still for so long.

He stepped closer and closer to the door, he could feel his heart racing. He tried to take in a few breaths to calm himself. How was he going to tell Alcina he needed to get his pack under control without giving away Kat’s little lie to her? She wasn’t going to let him go without evidence. He racked his brain, this shouldn’t be as hard as it is. Perhaps she heard something from the villagers, yeah that might work. It was all he had. 

He sucked in a breath and knocked on the door. He waited, listening to his sister’s voice or the sound of heels tapping against the floor. At first, he heard nothing, he moved to turn away and go to her room, that was the only other place he thought she could be. But then he heard heavy footsteps clunking against the door. The door opened to reveal his sister, well everything from the shoulders down, he couldn’t see her face. She stooped down to look at him.

“Yes, brother?” She asked. Brother was what she called him when she was annoyed, not particularly at him; just annoyed. He couldn’t think of any reason why she would feel annoyance towards him, but the words still put him a little on edge. 

“We -I need to walk to you.” He said. She didn’t say anything, she just stepped back and allowed him in. She closed the door behind him.

“What do you wish to talk about?” She asked, sitting down in her chair again. He walked over to the one across from here and climbed into it. Both chairs were fit for her, meaning that about two Heisenbergs could sit in one chair and still have room to fidget around. 

“What do you wish to talk about?” She asked, looking him in the eye. He gulped suddenly feeling like he was under some kind of scrutiny. 

“I need to go back to the factory, for a few days.” he said after clearing his throat. He couldn’t look her in the eye. 

“Why?” She asked, narrowing her eyes. He wanted to shrink back. 

“My packs need to be put back into order.” He said after a minute. His voice was higher than it normally was. 

“Where did you get this information?” She asked, leaning back in her chair. 

“The nanny and I were talking-” He watched her face grow a little darker at just that sentence. “-and she said that the villagers were acting a little weird when she went there, she said they were talking about recent wolf attacks.” He explained. “You know as well as I do when they get riled up they sometimes go and attack your village.” He added. 

“Very well.” His sister said. “Go.”

He slid out of the seat and headed towards the door. But just as he grabbed the handle his sister spoke. “Tell me, little brother,” Oh fuck that was his trouble name. “When she came back from that village she had scratches on her arm, Damara said she said she got them a tree branch. But I think that they look oddly like the inflictions made by your wolves.” Alcina said. “When Kat came back she told me she was late because she dallied. Do you think she could have lied?” She asked. Her voice was mocking, she knew, god damn it, she knew, Kat he was so sorry. 

He tried to turn the doorknob, but the door creaked as it opened. One hard look from his sister and he was closing it once more, trapping himself inside with her. 

“This means she didn’t lie to me once, but twice.” Alcina said, her voice darkening. She got up from her seat and slowly walked over to Heisenberg. He actually shrunk back a little as she got closer. Somehow she seemed even taller now. 

“When was the second time?” He asked with a smile. She scowled at him.

“Only a fool would believe her little menstruation story.” She growled, stooping lower so that he didn’t have to crane his neck so far to look her in the eye. But she wasn’t doing it to be nice, it was an intimidation tactic. And it was working. He felt his heart pounding just a little hard in his chest like someone was beating a drum as hard as they could.

“I- I-” He stuttered but no words could come out. It felt like they were stuck in his throat and he just couldn’t get them out. 

“Go.” She growled. He wrenched the door open and all but ran out the door. He heard her footsteps as she too stepped out of the living room. He walked past the door to Rosie’s room and stuck his head in. Kat looked up at him, her brows furrowed and she cocked her head to the side. 

“She knows, she’s coming.” Was all he got out before he was off again. 

  
  
  
  


Kat got up and looked back at Rosie, she was sleeping. She wouldn’t need her for a while, Kat slowly backed out of the room, before turning and sprinting towards the dining room where she then slipped into the kitchen. As if on cue her stomach growled.

She searched around the kitchen, ignoring the fruit bowl. She opened random cabinets, the pantry. Maybe she could make something. Her stomach growled again and she felt the hunger building inside of her again. The consequence of healing from the door incident. She needed to eat something. Like a cake, or pancakes. She thought. But it was the afternoon. It wasn’t time for breakfast. 

Suddenly the door opened and heavy footsteps followed suit. She slowly turned around to see Lady Dimitrescu staring at her. She did not look pleased. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be so much fun.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter Thirty-Two 

“Do you know why I am here?” Lady Dimitresu asked, her voice slow and deep. She stalked forward, towards Kat. Kat felt every hair on the back of her neck stand up straight. Each step caused the ground to quiver and tremble. Kat swore she heard a low growl after her sentence, it traveled through the air and reverberated in Kat’s chest causing her inners to shake along with her. 

Even though she was at the edge of the counter, she found herself stepping back and painfully pressing against the cold stone surface. She tried clenched her jew trying to prevent herself from hissing in pain. It dug painfully into her skin and pressed oddly against the ridges of her spine. But she could hardly pay attention to it. Her fearful eyes were watching every move that Lady Dimitrescu took. Kat never took her gaze off of Lady Dimitrescu, she didn’t even blink.

“No, ma’am,” Kat said, she could hear the quiver in her voice but she didn’t care at the moment. “I don’t know why you are here.” Kat said she watched Lady Dimitrescu’s face darken, and her heart dropped just a little more into her stomach. She knew she was bending the truth. Her answer was only partially a lie thought (but she supposed it didn't really matter), she didn’t know which lie she was here for, just one? Both? Maybe it was best she didn’t bend the truth from now on, seeing as this is the result it got her.

“Do you think this is a game?” She asked, her eyes flashed. Kat didn’t speak, she just shook her head. “Let me make one thing clear, you have lied to me twice now, you on your third strike. Lie again, and you will suffer for it.” Kat swallowed feeling her mouth go dry, and her fear rose. She was so fucked. 

It was like all the warmth had been drained from her as Lady Dimitrescu’s shadow moved over her. She was very close now, there couldn’t have been any more than a foot between them. Kat sucked in her breath and allowed it to exhale shakily. She was done for she knew it. Kat craned her neck upwards so she could look the woman in the eye. 

Lady Dimitrescu stared back at Kat, her yellow gaze burning as if challenging her, daring her to try something, anything. Every muscle in Kat’s body was screaming for her to run, to get out. She felt like a deer being stared down by a wolf. She tilted her head and looked at the door. If she was fast enough, she might be able to get there in time. But then what? She hadn’t known how this castle was laid out, and she could easily get lost, and then she would get caught. Plus she’d only anger Lady Dimitrescu further.

But was it worth it? Kat wondered. She could feel her body preparing to run, her heart was pounding, the muscles in her legs tensing. The blood was humming in her ears, and low deep hum. She looked back at Lady Dimitrescu, who had yet to say anything else to her.

Kat tried to subtly shift so that she would have the best chance of escape. But that was where she failed. 

She jumped violently as Lady Dimitrescu’s massive hands came down on the countertop, caging her in. Kat looked at her hands, her breathing ragged. Her pale fingertips dug into the cold surface of the stone, leaving deep dents in them. A low, inhuman, sound came out of Lady Dimitrescu’s throat. It traveled along the floor causing the room to vibrate. The sound traveled into Kat and rolled around in her chest. Kat’s heart pounded harder against the confines of her ribcage. 

“Do not try to run.” Lady Dimitrescu’s voice was dangerously soft. She bowed her head so that her face was closer to hers. “You will not get far.”

Kat gulped and nodded returning back to her original stance. Lady Dimitrescu’s arms did not move. 

“I will ask my question again.” She said. “Do you know why I am here?” She asked, her hot breath collecting on Kat’s chest. Kat could smell her perfume, it was almost intoxicating. But she pushed those thoughts out of her mind, this woman looked like she was going to kill her if she so much as breathed the wrong way around her. 

“Is it about the blood?” Kat asked, cocking her head to the side.

A small smile formed on Lady Dimitrescu’s face. It wasn’t a warm smile, it was cold and devoid of emotion. It was mocking, it made Kat’s stomach do a summersault. It growled again, a low gurgle. Kat closed her eyes, suppressing a cringe, now was not the time. She felt the knot in her stomach slowly growing tighter and tighter. It made her feel like she was hollow inside. She allowed her upper body to lean back ever so slightly. 

She was relieved that Lady Dimitrescu didn’t seem to notice, or most likely, she didn’t care that Kat’s stomach was starting to growl and gurgle loudly. 

“It is.” Her voice is still mocking and it made Kat bristle. She sounded like a mother congratulating her small child for completing a simple task. It made Kat feel small, but she knew that’s who Lady Dimitrescu wanted. She held her tongue, now was not the time to smart mouth or talk back to someone who was more than twice her size. “But more precisely what were you doing back there? There is nothing you need from the broom closet.” 

“I ran in there to hide.” Kat said looking back up at Lady Dimitrescu. Kat could feel a thin layer of sweat building on her face. It caused her glasses to slide down her nose. She pushed her glasses back up on her face.

“Why?” She asked.

“There was a miscommunication, I was running from your brother.” Kat said. 

“Hmph-” Lady Dimitrescu paused for a moment considering something, but her face was unreadable “-How did the blood get here?” Lady Dimitrescu asked, narrowing her eyes. Kat racked her brain, ‘he dropped a door I threw at him on me’ didn’t sound like a believable answer. And yet it was the truth. But she didn’t have any scratches for proof. 

“I-” Kat said. Her eyes darted around the room. She didn’t know what to say, she was freezing up. “I - I got crushed.” Kat finally said, deciding to go with the truth, surely Lady Dimitrescu would be able to tell if she was lying. Lady Dimitrescu looked over her face, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. She then looked over her, Kat suddenly felt exposed like she was standing naked in front of her.

“I don’t see any injuries.” Lady Dimitrescu said, her eyes flashing. This was what Kat was afraid of. She felt her panic beginning to set in. “I thought I said no more lying.” She growled. 

“I’m being honest.” Kat said, her voice rising a pitch. She raised her hands unconsciously shielding herself. As if that would protect her. “I swear.”

“Why should I believe you, you’ve lied to me, you are unreliable.” She growled baring her teeth, she got closer, her back arched so that her face was inches from hers. Kat tried not to think too hard about it. She looked into her yellow eyes, her heart pounding. Kat could see her teeth, or rather her fangs, glinting. Kat sucked a breath of air in and held it. 

Kat felt her fear and frustration rising. Damn it. She was telling the truth and she didn’t believe her. Part of this was her own fault for lying in the past. On second thought, all of this was her fault. She wanted to kick herself for being so careless and stupid. 

“I swear, I’m telling the truth, I was crushed.” She said she could feel her desperation rising. This couldn’t end well. Lady Dimitrescu leaned back, giving her space.

“By what?” Lady Dimitrescu asked, crossing her arms. Kat felt a sudden wave of relief now that she was no longer caged. But she didn’t dare try to escape.

“By the door, damn it.” Kat said, feeling a burst of fear and anger welling up inside of her erupting within. Lady Dimitrescu’s eyes flashed and her hand moved swiftly and quickly to grab Kat’s throat. But Kat caught her wrist and held it. She bared her teeth, a low sound rumbled in her chest, and looked Lady Dimitrescu in the eye, her fingers dug into her chilled skin. And then she felt any trace of irritation fade away and it was replaced with only fear. Her fingers relaxed on Lady Dimitrescu's arm, though she did not remove them. Her snarl went away and her face became relaxed with shock. Oh god, what had she just done? 

Lady Dimitrescu looked shocked. Her usually placid expression was morphed by surprise. Her eyes were wide, and there was a spark of something that Kat couldn't recognize or read. 

There was a sudden sound as the door was opened and Damra stepped into the room, she looked confused. Kat curved herself so she was looking at Damara. She looked even more so when she saw what was going on. She blinked a couple of times. “Am I interrupting something?” She asked. 

Lady Dimitrescu stepped back and turned towards her daughter. “No, my dear, you are not.” She said a small smile forming on her face. It was warm, and for a moment Kat felt a little less afraid. But when she turned back to Kat the smile faded and that fear that had previously been erased came back. “Go to your room, I will deal with you in a moment.” She growled. 

Kat nodded and didn’t wait for any more instruction. She just ran as fast as she could back to her room. 


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter Thirty-Three

“Mother, I have news about the hunters.” Damara said. Alcina noted that her daughter looked concerned but there was something almost like joy sparkling in her eyes. A few of her moths broke off of her body and fluttered around the room excitedly, fluttering around the room, before coming back and melding in with her body once more. 

“Tell me.” She said leaning against the countertop. They were hardly ever in here, seeing as there wasn’t really a use for it. Not much preparation went into eating a human’s flesh, just tear a chunk off of their body and eat it. And all the winemaking occurred in the cellar. 

“They plan to attack tonight, but they are low on ammunition, and they are fighting amongst themselves.” A small grin formed on Damara’s face, and her voice brimmed with excitement. Alcina couldn’t help but smile back at her daughter. She reached forward and gently stroked her face. 

“Thank you, my love, now go tell your sisters to get ready.” Alcina said, allowing her hand to slid off of her daughter’s face and gently clasp her shoulder. 

“Yes, Mother.” Damara said. Her daughter tried to put on a straight face, but she just couldn’t stop smiling. 

“Oh, and lock her door would you.” She said. “We don’t need her escaping before I _deal_ with her.” Damara nodded and with that she turned away, her hair flicking behind her.

She jogged out of the door and into the hall. Once she was gone, Alcina’s smile faded when her thoughts drifted back to Kat. 

Kat, a tiny woman, had caught her wrist and managed to hold her hand in place. Not only that but the look that momentarily formed in her eye was enough to make Alcina feel weary. Not to mention the sound that had come out of her. It was as deep and inhuman as her own. 

No human was capable of doing such things, many have tried and it was all very amusing to watch as young men and women thought that they would be able to hold their ground against her. And ultimately fail. What was even funnier was that Alcina wasn’t using her full strength and she still managed to overpower them. But Kat? Kat was something else entirely. What was she?

For a split second, Alcina felt momentary concern as her mind drifted to her youngest child. She had allowed this potentially dangerous creature to handle her, how had she not seen this in Kat earlier? But Rosie appeared to be fine, Kat didn’t _appear_ to pose a great threat to any one of her daughters, or Alcina herself. But she could never be too careful, especially at a time like this. She couldn’t risk anything, not with hunters around. The last thing they needed was someone working against them from the inside as well as the outside.

  
  
  
  


Kat closed the door behind her, her stomach growled and this time the hollowness had subsided and turned into something far more painful. It felt like she was being digested from the inside. All she wanted to do was to curl up into a ball and whimper. It hurt so much. It felt like she was being ripped apart one molecule at a time. 

She stepped forward and immediately doubled over as her stomach growled again, a fresh wave of pain shot from her the core of her belly, crawling up her spine and settling into her limbs in the form of a tingly feeling. Kat let out a small cry that she cut off halfway, biting down on her lower lip so hard that she tasted the metallic tang of her own blood pooling on her lower lip. She didn’t need the castle’s inhabitants to know she was in pain. They would assuredly use it against her. 

Kat managed to half stumbled, half crawling her way to her bed. But she didn’t feel any relief once her body made contact with the plush surface. She groaned in pain. Looking at her arms she noticed, with horror that her skin was paling before her eyes. It was like all the blood was suddenly being drained from her. Very soon her body was going to deteriorate if she didn’t consume sustenance soon. It had happened only once before, and she had vowed never to allow it to happen again. 

She shuttered at her memories, all fuzzy and blurred. She had been half-conscious and completely unaware of herself, almost too far gone to remember most of them, but sometimes she got bits and pieces. She had been mindless, following the scent of human flesh and attacking anything that moved. She doesn’t remember exact events, most of her knowledge of the situation comes from newspapers and security cameras. But the one thing that she can remember from those few days of mindless hunting and killing, as a deep, insatiable hunger. 

She didn’t want to become that again. She couldn’t. 

She thought she had something in her suitcase if she could just find it. She tried to push herself up, but her limbs felt weak. Her elbows shook under her weight and she collapsed back down on the bed. She growled with frustration and using the last ounce of her strength and pushed herself up. The force caused her to roll off the bed and she collapsed onto the ground with a loud thump. She pulled herself slowly over the black suitcase. Her fingers dug into the hardwood on the floor. It was made a little easier because she had pants on, preventing her skin from sticking. 

She unzipped a small pocket on the side and fiddled around in it. She heard the sound of a plastic wrapper wrinkling. She felt a spark of hope and pulled it out, it was a half-eaten granola bar, that had to have been at least a month old, gross. Not the best, but it would work for now. With shaking fingers that felt too weak to pinch the wrapper and pulled it down. 

The granola bar was stale, it no longer had its crunch, it was now squishy and tough, it felt like she was trying to eat an eraser. And it tasted like the inside of someone’s pocket, but it was the only thing that was going to keep her hunger at bay. But it wouldn’t keep her hunger at bay for long, but it would work for at least enough time to control herself. At least for a little while. Her scenes were still heightened and her limbs still felt like jelly. Her skin was still deathly pale.

Kat sat up and hauled herself to her feet. Suddenly the door opened. Kat jumped. She spun around to see Daniela standing in her doorway. She made a face when her eyes landed on Kat. She craned her neck back. Kat only barely caught what she said. “I see why you were so freaked out now, Damara.” She turned to look back at Kat. She held a strange-looking dagger in her hand. It made Kat uneasy, made even more so when she saw the look in her eye. Behind her sister stood, giggling. 

“You are so fucked, Mother’s going to kill you.” She said, with a broad smile on her face, it was a little too wide for her comfort. Kat saw her teeth, they were sharp like their mother’s. Kat felt her heartbeat a little faster. Damara laughed before she closed the door behind her. Kat heard the sound of the door locking, with a soft click. Her heart sank. She was trapped. She knew they were teasing her, they were trying to mess with her head. To make her more afraid before Lady Dimitrescu…  _ dealt _ with her. 

But even though she knew they were just playing with her head, the fear inside of her was beginning to grow, and it was morphing into panic. It was causing her heart to race and her head to sway for a moment. Unwanted thoughts intruded in her mind. What was Lady Dimitrescu planning to do with her? Nothing good, that was for sure. A moment ago she had tried to choke her after all.

She got up and stumbled over to her window. She looked out the clouded window, whipping off some of the condensation clouding it. She was very high up, maybe she could jump? No, she could not use that one, that was way too high up. She would never make it. She might be able to heal quickly but it would take a few precious minutes. A broken ankle would slow her down and make it easier for them to catch her. She couldn’t risk the fall. She had to find another way out. 

She half stumbled and half-ran towards the door. Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK! What was she going to do? She needed to get out of here, now! She grabbed the knob, she knew it was useless to try to turn it, it was locked after all, but a part of her just wanted to see. Sure enough, it didn’t budge. She grabbed the knob readying her stance, seeing only one way.

She pulled on the door once. Nothing happened but she heard the sound of wood cracking. She tugged again. The wood cracked some more. She let out a heavy breath, gripping the knob as tightly as she could, the brass bending slightly as she did. She stuck in a breath and she pulled as hard as she could. 

There was a loud crack as the lock was broken and the door was wrenched open. Kat fell back onto her rear end. She scrambled to her feet and ran out of the room. She stepped out into the hall and looked around. The daughters were moving down the hall leading to the dining room. They were talking amongst themselves. It would be best if she moved now. She carefully stepped down the stairs and was ready to dart behind them and find an escape route. But a strange almost  _ heavenly _ smell flooded his nostrils. She slowly turned, looking down the hall that Heisenberg had chased her down.

No no no no no no! She thought to herself, as her hunger flared and she began to walk in that direction. She tried to stop herself, she felt her limbs lock up for a moment before her instincts took over and she continued to move towards the direction of the smell. Drool built in her mouth and dripped down her lips, it ran down her chin, and slowly oozed down her neck. By this point it had cooled, it felt like thick, cold slime was running down her jugular.

She looked behind her, Daniela, Eliane, and Damara were all still distracted. She once again tried to move in their direction to find a way to escape. But her body was hell-bent on taking her in the direction of the broom closet. 

She stumbled to the door. This was the broom closet, right? Or was the broom closest’s door broken? It had to be, she threw it at Heisenberg, this was the place beside it. What was behind it that she was so drawn to? Kat wondered as she half-consciously pushed the door open. It creaked and groaned. 

She heard gasps of horror, she whipped her head around to see all three of Lady Dimitrescu’s daughters. Kat ran inside and slammed the door shut. She was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a lock on the inside as opposed to the outside. She quickly slid it into place. 

Then the realization dawned on her. Why was there a lock on the inside, instead of the outside like all the others? What was Lady Dimitrescu trying to hide? She turned around and looked into the room. Her eyes were still adjusting. She reached for something in the darkness, her other hand never leaving the door. She found a railing and began to slowly feel her way around the room before her eyes were properly adjusted. She found a small flight of stairs and slowly descended down them. 

She jumped and almost fell down the stairs when she heard a bang on the door. “Get out of there!” A voice screamed. They sound truly afraid. Kat wondered why? She descended the stairs a little more quickly, her eyes adjusting to the near darkness. 

Kat walked further into the rooms, realizing that there were cells inside of them. And inside of those cells was either a strange-looking harness hung from the ceiling or shackles on the far wall. Kat gulped. What the hell was this place? Why did it smell so good, to her right now?

She could still hear banging, the door was rattled and shaking as the sisters desperately tried to get into the room but to no avail. She ignored the sound as she stepped closer to the back of the room. She heard a momentary buzzing before a frustrated groan was heard. “The gap is too small.” She heard a sister complain. 

She walked further and further until she was at the last cell. There was something in there. She stepped forward slowly putting her hands on the bars and squinting to see. Then she realized what it was. Her eyes widened and she stumbled back in shock. She sucked air in through her nose and her eyes widened with horror. Oh god, that was what she smelled. Flesh. 

She tried to stop when she found herself pulling back the unlocked door and stepping inside. Strings of drool ran down her chin, as she eyed the corps. It dripped off onto her chest. She tried to stop herself, again, but it was like she wasn’t even in control of her own body at this point. She stepped closer and closer to the corps that dangled in front of her. His skin was discolored, it was pale and there was a tone of purple in it. The color of rot. What was once a smell that might rival that of the inside of a porta-potty, now smelled like a heavenly buffet for her. 

Dried blood ran down his arms and legs, his head saged down. Kat saw the look on his face, his mouth was open with a frozen scream and his wide eyes had rolled into the back of his head. She looked away from his face, it was starting to make it feel like she swallowed a living creature. She picked up his limp arm and brought it to her mouth. She sank her teeth into the flesh and tore away a large chunk, chewing it and swallowing. It tasted bitter, like rotting fish, it had to be at least a day or two old. But she didn't care, her hunger encouraged her to do it again. So did. She did it again, and again, and again until the flesh on his left arm was gone. All that was left was the bone. But wasn't enough, she needed _more_. 

She did the same thing to his other arm. The sound of flesh squelching as it was torn away from the bone filled the room. Blood was smeared all over her face, she tried to wipe it away but only managed to draw it up her cheek. When his right arm was gone, she stepped back. Her hunger was seemingly satisfied. She stared at the body in horror.

She… she just ate, his arm.  _ Both _ of his arms. And she just ate a rotting corpse. Kat dry heaved. And she almost vomited again when she felt chunks of human flesh rising in her throat. She swallowed thickly. She felt it settling in her stomach, it was heavy like rocks, and it sloshed around. No, she had not just done that. Oh god. 

Suddenly the rattling and the banging stopped. Kat looked up. “Get, Mother!” She heard a voice say. Then she heard three pairs of feet running away from the door. Her heart jumped into her throat as she ran to the front of the room. This was her chance to escape while they were distracted. She waited a moment until she could no longer hear the footsteps. 

She unlocked the door and wrenched it open. She sucked in a deep breath and crept into the hall. 


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

Kat thanked her lucky stars when the door didn’t creak as she pushed it open. The girls were only halfway down the hall. One of them burst into a swarm of insects and Kat ducked back into the cellar. Her heart jumping into her throat as she did so. But they didn't seem to notice her or the door. The two remaining girls ran into the dining room, followed shortly by the swarm of flies and wasps. Kat stepped on into the hall, noting the sound that her shoes were making. 

Perhaps it was because of the silence after all the commotion, but they were entirely too loud against the floor. They would give away her presents, she couldn’t risk it. She knelt down, her eyes flicking from her boots to the dining room door, she pulled the zipper down and slipped both of her shoes off. Her socked feet were almost silent against the floor. 

She carefully stepped forward. She hesitated for a moment looking back at the simple black boots sitting in front of her. The black leather had lost a lot of its pristine look, it was cracked in some places, and there were other spots where the leather had gone pale. The soles of the shoes were almost worn down to smooth bottoms. But they had been given to her as a birthday present from Alison, they were old and worn, but they were the only piece of Alison that she had left of her. 

Kat turned away, tearing her eyes away from the old shoes, and began to carefully trot down the hall. She made sure to keep her footsteps light. Her socked feet might have been quieter than the shoes, but they still made some noise. She could hear a commotion behind the doors of the dining room. The words were muffled by the heavy wood, enough that Kat couldn’t make out what they were saying. All she could figure out was that they sounded frantic. She finally heard Lady Dimitrescu’s voice breaking in through it all. 

She sounded both a mixture of anger and fear, Kat couldn’t tell which one was more prevalent. It didn’t really matter, any amount of ire from Lady Dimitrescu was bad news. The girls had stopped talking altogether, their voices slowly dropping off as Lady Dimitrescu’s volume grew. Fuck, she was more than just angry, she was furious. Kat continued to trot past the wooden doors, her heart pounding as she got closer and closer to where they might come out of. She passed it and she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding in. 

Just then she heard footsteps growing closer to the door. Kat jumped, and for a split second she froze, it was like her limbs suddenly locked. The first to come out were the girls, then their mother, every single one of them looked pissed. “Get her.” Lady Dimitrescu said through clenched teeth. Kat made the mistake of looking at the furious woman in the eyes. She saw a flaming inferno of fire dancing around in her golden gaze. Daniela charged towards Kat. Kat suddenly regained control of her limbs and broke into a run.

She heard the sound of footsteps pounding on the floor. She looked behind her to see Daniela half transformed into a swarm flying after her with her arms outstretched. Kat ducked and turned a corner, causing Daniela to fly past her. But it wasn’t long before the blonde caught up again. Kat inwardly groaned. She turned various corners and ran down long hallways that seemed to stretch every step she took. She wasn’t entirely sure where she was going. But was going to bite her in the ass later. But she couldn't find herself to care.

She took a turn and suddenly she was in the entrance room. She felt her heart skip a beat in joy. She would be free soon.

Suddenly she felt someone grab a hold of her shirt from behind. The shirt tucked up and pressed against her neck. She craned her head to see what had gotten her. It was Daniela, she felt her heart sink. 

“I got you.” Daniela said in a sing-song voice. She pulled a sickle out of her pocket and held it up to Kat’s face. “Now I’m gonna slice it into pieces.” She declared jabbing the sickle into Kat’s side. Kat’s scream filled the room, along with the sound of fabric tearing. Daniela laughed and threw her to the floor. Her shirt was now split open like it was a button-down, but it had no buttons. 

Kat felt the same wriggling in her flesh, the healing process was suddenly faster, perhaps it was because of the recent nourishment. Kat shuttered when she thought about the corpse she had just eaten. Daniela stepped towards her slowly. Kat knew she was trying to build up suspense, but she still felt her fear bubbling up inside of her. She inched herself back, her breathing ragged. Each breath was painful, like sandpaper being rubbed down her throat. 

Come on. Come on. Kat thought as she felt the wriggling feeling in her flesh like a thousand maggots inside of her were feasting on her flesh. She saw Daniela’s smile fade when she looked at the injury. Kat might say she almost looked disappointed. Kat looked down to see her skin was now growing over the cut, the blood that had been spilled still remained on her, now drying and browning on her skin, but the gash was now mostly gone. 

Daniela lunged at her, letting out a fearful cry. Kat curled up into a ball, wrapping her arms around her head and drawing her knees into her stomach. She cried as Daniela slashed her sickle over her arms and any other part of her body that could be reached. The sickle dug into her skin on her stomach, cutting her shirt into ribbons. Her knees and legs were cut reducing her hands to rags, not unlike the state her shirt was in. the sickled slashed her arms. She felt blood dripping, oozing out of the cuts, thick like paint. She felt it drip onto her face. Daniela reached around and stabbed the sickle into her chest. Kat’s eyes flew open with pain. For some reason that was the last straw. 

Finally, Kat had enough she uncovered her face and with a sharp shove, she threw Daniela off of her, halfway across the room. Daniela hit the ground with a loud “oof”, the floor cracked under her body weight. She sat up quickly, her eyes wide. 

“Now did you-” Daniela began to ask, but Kat didn’t wait for her to finish. She pulled herself up off the floor and ran towards the door. She slipped in her own blood which had pooled around her. Kat’s eyes widened upon seeing the sheer amount of it. She felt it soaking into her socks, it was still warm. “Don’t you dare!” Daniela shrieked, scrambling to her feet. Just about then her sisters and her mother came into the room after her. All of them are still looking as angry as a donkey and hemorrhoid. They all charged at Kat, running towards her and an impressive speed. Daniela jumping into the air, insects exploded from her. Kat twisted the knob and threw the door open. A sharp gust of wind blew in her face and snowflakes fluttered into the room. It blew the insects away and almost knocked Kat over. 

Kat turned giving Daniela one last look of victory and ran out the door. The snow was cold under her feet, and very soon she knew they were going to be numb but she didn’t care. She just needed to get away. She heard a loud scream of anger. She looked behind her in time to see Daniela tear after her. Kat ran a little faster jumping over a fallen tree and into the woods she went.

  
  
  
  


Lilyanne sat definitely on the log seat. Her arms were crossed. “I’m not going.” She said defiantly, narrowing her eyes. Michel ground his teeth together, and Justin rolled his eyes. Michel growled and whipped around stomping towards Lilyanne, who just looked up at him with a bored expression. It just seemed to anger him further. Good. 

“Let me make myself clear, if you don’t come, I’ll shoot you!” He said pointing his gun at her. She looked up at him, cocking her head to the side, silently daring him to pull the trigger. To her surprise and slight startle, he actually did, she felt it breeze past her shoulder and land into a neighboring tree. She sighed and rolled her eyes. 

She got up and grabbed her weapon. “There, happy?” She asked. Michel glared at her.

“Let go.” He growled. Justin turned away from her and she had little choice but to follow. She sighed and dropped her shoulders. They were all going to die, she just knew it. But she was just experiencing “female hysteria” according to Michel and Justin. God, she wanted to strangle him. At this point, she might be willing to take a slow painful death over having to be in his presents. It’d be far more merciful.

The snow was beginning to come down quickly. It would have been beautiful and maybe almost calming if Lilyanne didn’t know what lurked inside these woods. Something that took people and killed them in cold blood. 

They walked for a while until they heard the sound of footsteps crunching in the snow. They stopped dead in their tracks, they swiveled in the places that they stood, pointing their guns in various directions. They saw the figure of a woman. As she got closer Lilyanne was able to make more out about her. Her clothes were torn. She was covered in blood, and she was almost as pale as a china doll. She tripped over a root and she fell onto the ground, her hair spilled in front of her face. Lilyanne ran to her to make sure she was alright, the other two followed her. The woman quickly scrambled to her feet, looking around rapidly, like an animal being hunted by an unseen predator. Was something chasing her? Lilyanne wondered. 

  
  
  
  
  


When Kat looked up flicking her hair out of her face, she felt her heart rise for a moment. There were people out there that could help her. But then she noticed their expressions. They didn’t look happy or concerned if anything two looked angry and the one in the middle, he looked vengeful. 

“Who are you? Why are you covered in blood? Are you one of them?” The vengeful-looking one asked, grabbing his gun and pointing it at her. Kat stumbled back, putting her hands up to block her face. She heard a twig snap, probably under her, but she found herself looking around anyway.

“I-” Kat stuttered. She was freezing up again, panic was starting to cloud her brain, she needed to get going. Or they were going to catch up to her. She tried to move but the man trained his gun on her again, baring his teeth at her. Kat stilled.    
  


“Answer me, bitch.” The man said jabbing his gun at her. Kat jumped back, her brows furrowed, offended by his words. She didn’t speak, she just glared at them for a moment. The man shifted his gun, the snowflakes fell around them rapidly, filling in her tracks. “You don’t answer me in two seconds, I'm going to shoot you.” 

Kat still didn’t answer, she didn’t know what to say. Suddenly she felt pain in her chest, her eyes went wide and she sucked in a breath. A loud bang echoed through the forest, Kat’s ears rang, but very slowly the ringing stopped until it was just an annoying buzzing in her ear. She heard the woman and the man yelling at the vengeful one. Kat was thrown back, but she pushed herself back up. 

“You didn’t let her answer.” The man said, his eyes were wide. 

“What is wrong with you? That could have been a human!” The woman yelled, slamming her fist into the vengeful one’s arm. He whipped around and shoved her to the side. The woman cried out and fell onto her side.

“What human looks like that?” The vengeful man asked, jabbing a finger at him. He turned to look at her and looked a little shocked to see her sitting there. 

Kat expected to pass out, that’s what usually happens when she got a life-threatening injury such as this, but nothing happened. Why was nothing happening. She looked down at her gunshot. Blood flowed freely from it but with it also came a strange blue liquid. Then Kat felt the pulsing. It was like it was deep inside of her like a mechanism had been placed inside of her very center long ago and had now just activated. 

She felt a sudden pain in her middle. Like the very center of her body was folding in on itself. She curled in on herself letting out a cry of pain. No. no no no no no NO! She thought, her eyes going wide, she knew what was happening. She sucked in a shaky breath. She had spent two decades trying to prevent it. But now it had caught up to her, all it was waiting for was a trigger. And that man had given it just that. She looked at her hands. There was no stopping what was about to come. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger!
> 
> *whispers* I know I'm evil.


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the wise words of Sally_A... 
> 
> Release The Nanny!

Chapter Thirty-Five

Kat had expected it to hurt. But she hadn’t expected it to hurt  _ this _ much. It felt like someone had stabbed white-hot iron needles into her chest and was slowly moving them in the most agonizing way possible. She looked down at her hands they were shaking, but that wasn’t all they were doing. The veins under her skin began to pulse and throb. The flesh on her skin literally began to crawl as large boils as large as nickels began to form on them. There was one on the middle of the back of her hand that grew larger and larger until it popped, thick white puss came out of it, chunks landed on her other hand and some even managed to splatter on her face. Blood was mixing with the puss and the wounds on her hands began to sting. 

Kat put her hands in her hair as tears filled her eyes, her heart was pounding and fear was tearing away at her gut from the inside out. It all hurt so much, it was almost as bad as when she got caught in the heatwave sent out by the bomb. When dragged her hand down her face and let out a shaky exhale. She felt a strange sensation like she was touching something flakey and so delicate that even a light touch would take the flakes off onto one’s hand. When she pulled her hands aware she saw large chunks of hair in her hands. She startled and threw them down into the snow, the white snow as now stained with her blood. At the ends of the hair lock, she noticed that there was a bloody patch of skin. Her eyes widened with horror and her mouth fell open. 

She looked up at the humans who were all staring at her wide eyes. The woman’s face was twisted with disgust and horror. The man who had shot her had paled significantly, and the other man was doubling over dry heaving with his hand over his mouth. She could hear him retching and then heard the splatter as the contents of his stomach emptied onto the ground. Steam rose from it. Her nose crinkled as the sour smell curled up her nostrils. 

She ran her hands along her arms, they were beginning to itch, like her skin was being stretched to its limits. And to her horror, the skin on her arms began to peel off as well. They too came off in large bloody chunks. She held the large patch of skin in the palm of her hand like it was a precious diamond, blood dripped from it and flooded into the line on her hands. She slowly looked down at her now bare arm to see pulsating muscles. With every pulse, they grew a little bigger. Pain shot from everything in her body right to her spine before it traveled up her back and sent pinpricks into her brain.

She clenched her face again when her head began to throb. It was like there was something pressing against the inside of her skull. She squeezed her eyes shut, whimpering from the pain that was growing and growing as each second passed. 

Kat felt a wet sticky feeling running down her face, it was thick and mixed with her tears. It was hot, it burned as it slowly made its way down her skin. It felt like someone had just poured acid onto her face. Then she felt that same sensation, out of her nose, it oozed out of her nostrils and dipped down over her lip. When Kat’s tongue came out to lick it away, she reeled back at the taste, it tasted like death, worse than rotting meat. It tasted like dirt mixed with slime from the bottom of a pond. She spat it out, but the taste lingered on her tongue. 

She raised her hand to her face and wiped whatever was coming out of her eyes and nose. She was expecting blood, but she was mistaken. What came back on her hand was something that looked like black slime. It was thick and there were chunks of  _ something _ in it. Its consistency was that of thick glue, and it was sticky too. Some got between the gap between her fingers and when she spread them they stuck to each digit in thick black strands. She flicked her hand and the black substance was thrown away right into the direction of the humans. They jumped back not knowing what it was.

The man who had shot her was pointing his gun at her again. The woman grabbed his arm yelling something that Kat could not hear, the thick black substance was almost spilling out of her ears and running down the side of her head. That same burning sensation was felt as the thick black liquid flowed down her ear canal, down her neck, and over her shoulders. She could just hear the woman’s words. 

Kat reached up to wipe the burning substance away, her fingernail caught on some of the torn fabric of her clothes. When she pulled her finger away there was a soft crack as her fingernail slowly lifted from the upper part of her finger. She squeezed her eyes shut as pain tingle in the tips of her fingers. She had a choice: leave her hand there or pull it away. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath before pulling as hard as she could. Her fingernail popped off of her finger and fell to the ground. Kat reached down, she looked at the spot where her fingernail used to be, it was just a red crater in her flesh now. 

“It won’t work, it’ll have the same effect as it did before, think rationally.” The woman said tugging on the man’s arms. She batted her away muttering something under his breath too quiet for Kat to pick up. His friend was also trying to stop him, but he wasn’t touching him. He was just talking really fast like his life depended on it. 

“Michel, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’m with Lilyanne, don’t do it!” He said, his voice urgent. He groaned as the man, Michel apparently, shot her again. Kat could hear his companion screaming at him, telling him to stop that he was just making it worse. And Kat had to agree. 

She fell back into the snow, the cold ground was oddly welcoming to her now overheated skin. She laid in the snow, her face turned to the side. The right side of her face was going to feel numb in a minute, but feeling no pain was better than the burning. Her blood leaking out from under her exposed facial tissue stained the snow under her a deep shade of red, the snow melted as the new water and blood mixed together creating swirls. 

Kat breathed out a heavy sigh, thinking it was over, she would heal and go on her way, like nothing had happened. How very  _ very _ wrong she was. It began with a twitch. A slight tremble in her hands. Then she began to shake more violently, her limbs moving in sporadic quick movements. She felt a pressure building inside of her, growing and growing until she felt the ripping. 

It was agonizingly slow at first. Then as if there was a spring inside of her, her upper half and lower half were split in two, only held together by her elongated spine. She screamed in pain slamming her fist down into the snow-covered ground. Her intestines hung out of her, the long fleshy cords dangled and riggled between her upper and lower body, there was a squeal as her flesh was ripped into pieces. Her arms began to grow in quick spurts ripping the flesh on her arms until there were just segments of flesh clinging to an elongated bone. 

Muscle suddenly began to shake it way around her body. Squelching could be heard as it grew rapidly wrapping around the elongated and thicker bone, pushing under the old flesh and replacing it. The old flesh on her arms fell to the ground in large clumps. Blood ran freely from it, quickly forming a puddle on the ground. 

All the while she was screaming as pain ripped through her, as the last remains of her flesh was ripped off of her bones by new muscles that pulsed and wriggled. Once her body was covered, new skin began to grow on her body. But it was not her original color, instead, it was grey leaning towards the color blue, like a body left out in the cold for too long. The humans were screaming, far too stunned and frightened to move. 

Kat felt pressure behind her eyes. Very slowly they were pushed out of their sockets, they hung by a single fleshy thread. Kat reached up and pulled as hard as she could. There was a little snap as Kat plucked her old eye out of her head. A new one grew in momentarily.

Kat sat on her knees in the ground, her hands half-buried in snow. Her chest was heaving and her eyes were wide. She reached before more black substance came out of her mouth. She looked around expecting more pain, but there was nothing. She waited a little more, she heard the shifting of guns, she looked up quickly to see the humans still standing there. How stupid of them. 

The smell of their fear curled up her nostrils as they flared taking in her first deep breath in this new form. But another smell curled up her nose, the smell of human flesh. Her stomach growled, she needed food, her body had just overworked itself reshaping and reforming, she needed to feed it. Now. 

She slowly pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the sound of her clothes ripping further, they were useless to her now. She let out a low growl that rattled in her chest and caused the very trees around her to shake. The man who had shot her and his friend turned and ran as fast as they could back into the first. Kat looked up at them watching them leave. She looked down at the woman who was unable to leave. Her eyes were wide and her libs shook like they were made out of jelly. 

Kat felt a small smile pull at her lips and she lunged. 

  
  
  
  


Alcina followed after her daughters. Her pace was far slower than her daughters, but despite this, she was not falling behind. Her heart pounded; she ended to find that nanny put a stop to her before she let something slip. She caught up to her daughters just as a low growl echoed through the forest. She stopped dead in her tracks listening intently. 

She could hear them calling for the nanny, Daniela cupped her hands around her mouth yelling “Where are you?” She let out a manic laugh, which made Alcina smile.

Suddenly there was a sound, Alcina’s head snapped in the direction she had heard it from, she felt her muscle testing readying for a fight. It was the sound of crunching leaves and snow. But it wasn’t growing quieter, it was growing louder. Alcina pushed her way in front of her daughters, allowing her to be the first to see what was coming to inform them if they should fight or run, and to shield them in case this was a threat. 

But instead, she saw a woman, Damera asked and Alcina could hear her exclaim. “It’s one of the hunters!” She said breathlessly. Alcina saw she was carrying a weapon, but she didn’t even seem to notice them. She looked out of breath, her face was red and there were tears freely running down her cheeks. She held her gun spinning in a circle, her eyes darting around rapidly.

When she saw nothing she swallowed and let out a breath, a sigh of relief. Suddenly a figure came running in front of the side and rammed into the huntress. The woman screamed as a strange creature lifted her off the ground. Her limbs kicked and grabbed the air trying to simultaneously gain purchase on something, and to fight whatever had a hold of her. 

Her screaming was cut short as the creature bit her neck, the huntress fought, clawing at the creature’s face, she let out a wail and a sob of desperation. Quickly, the creature twisted its head to the side pulling the huntress's head clean off of her body. There was a crunch and then a snap as the woman’s head came clean off, her spine came with it too, dangling like a rope attached to a bell. Her head dangled from the creature’s lips before it opened its mouth and allowed it to fall to the ground.

The woman’s hair bunched and tangled on the ground as the head bounced a few times before rolling to the side. The woman’s lifeless eyes stared into Alcina’s. She turned her attention back to the creatures. She was unsure of what it was, but she knew it was dangerous. She stepping in front of her children, moving her arms to herd her daughters behind her.

The creature bit into the woman’s shoulder twisting their head and the limp (and now headless) corpse in its hands to tear away a large chunk of flesh. Blood dripped from the body’s new opening, and it ran down the creature’s face. It looked like a toddler trying to feet itself. The creature sat down suddenly, there were vibrations sent through the ground as it did so. 

It looked up at Alcina with white irises against a black  sclera. Its eyes narrowed and it bit an even large chunk off of the huntress's body, bits of clothes and all. Now barbaric. It growled as it chewed blood flowed between the tiny gaps in the teeth and ran down her throat. 

Alcina narrowed her eyes, this creature’s face was oddly familiar. She looked at the creature for a little longer before her eyes widened with shock. By god, that was Kat. What the hell happened to her?

Kat threw down the huntress’s body, seemingly losing interest in it. Only the majority of the lower half remained, blood spilled from the body, half-eaten intestines dangled out of it like flesh color ropes hanging out of the body. Blood pooled into the snow, turning it a dark shade of red. Kat stood up staring at Alcina with hard eyes.

Suddenly Kat faltered, she stumbled to the side and then collapsed onto the ground. Alcina slowly approached her. She eyed the nanny in this new form, she could see muscles protruding from every limb. Kat twitched and Alcina took a step back tensing. But Kat didn't move any more than that. Slowly Alcina knelt down and took the nanny into her arms.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

Alcina shifted Kat in her arms as she walked back to the castle, the snow crunching under her feet. The woman’s new form was actually quite heavy. She noticed that her daughters all strayed around her, they were not nearly as close to her as they had been when they were charging through the forest after Kat. She noticed their eyes glistening with something similar to fear, flicking towards the nanny every couple of moments as if expecting her to wake up at any moment and attack them. 

But she honestly couldn’t blame them, Kat had gone from a tiny little woman into this… thing, she wasn’t exactly sure what she was, she wasn’t like them or Heisenberg, or any other creature she had encountered before. All she knew was that she was dangerous in some way. Kat had muscles bulging out of every limb and some even had pulsing veins popping out of her skin and pulsating along with her heartbeat. She had just brutally ripped a person apart like they were made out of paper and glue. Honestly, if Kat was conscious right now, Alcina wasn’t even  _ she _ would want to be near her. The look she had in her eye was beyond primal. 

But right now Kat’s eyes were closed and her face was relaxed, her body was limp like a bag of old laundry. She was no threat to them right now. Alcina might even argue Kat looked a little… cute.

Alcina had many questions, but they could wait until Kat was in a more suitable condition. 

Suddenly she felt something hard and slightly wet hit her arm. She looked down to see Kat’s teeth, her human teeth were dropping out of her mouth one by one. The ends of the teeth were dark red with blood. As if time itself was speeding up, massive fangs began to grow in through the now vacant gums. Alcina could hear the flesh stretching and contouring as it was displaced by a tooth nearly twice the size of a normal human’s. Alcina internally sighed and kept walking. 

Her daughters opened the doors for her as they walked up the steps of the castle. Kat twitched in Alcina’s arms, her daughters took another step back away from her, their eyes widening with fear. Her face scrunched up, and she snorted, a blast of condensation came out of her nose like smoke coming out of a train’s whistle. As if she was trying to ride nostrils of some sour smell.

“Eliane dear,” Alcina said softly, she wasn’t sure her volume would wake Kat but it was best not to test her luck. “Can you go run a bath?” She asked. Kat was covered head to toe in half-dried blood, some of it had already begun to coagulate together into thick globs of reddish-brown masses on her body. And there were bits of flesh that stuck to her, Alcina wasn’t sure who or what it came from, either way, they needed to be dealt with.

Eliane nodded curtly, with a little bit of a sigh. She cut her sigh off early when Alcina gave her a hard look, her eyes narrowing. She really did not need her daughter to test her patience right now. If Eliane had anything else to say, she didn’t voice it. She didn’t even grumble under her breath. She turned on her heel and quickly darted up the stairs. 

Alcina followed her up the stairs, being sure to take more careful steps. Holding Kat like this left her slightly imbalanced. The last thing she wanted to do was to fall. Most of the clothes left on Kat’s body were now nothing more than rags. Her shirt was not only soaked in blood but also had been torn into pieces, Alcina knew that some of that was thanks to her daughter’s own handy word but she could see where the fabric ripped due to being strained. Her pants were not much better, in fact, they were probably worse, practically strings clinging desperately to her body. 

Alcina set Kat’s limp form down beside the door, allowing herself to rest until she needed to take her into the bathroom. The woman’s head lolled to the side and her mouth hung slightly open, and a little bit of drool dribbled out of her mouth. Blood from her last meal still lingered on her tongue. 

Alcina finally got a good look at her. Her skin was greyish blue, unlike Alcina who just looked like a corpse. Kat now resembled a corpse that once belonged to a person who died of hypothermia. She was practically rippling with muscle, her forearm could easily be twice as big around as Alcina’s. Alcina got the strange urge to touch her arm, to feel her strength beneath her skin, usually, Alcina didn’t indulge in many of her impulses, but just this once. 

She knelt down beside Kat’s form. She reached out and after a moment of hesitation, she dragged the tips of her fingers along Kat’s forearm. She allowed herself to smile, she could feel the rock-hard muscles under her skin. And she was warm, warmer than a human’s natural temperature at least.

Alcina pulled away standing up and stepping back. She needed to control herself, she shouldn’t have done that. Kat would have assuredly not have appreciated her touching her now, not while she was vulnerable.

The door opened and Darma stepped out. “Mother.” She said nodding at her and then turned out of the room and walked down the hall. Alcina with a grunt of effort lifted Kat off the floor and took her into the bathroom. She walked her over to the tub and sat Kat down on a little ledge that stuck out from the side of the wall next to the bathtub. The tub was full of clear shimmering water, small wisps of steam rose from it. 

Alcina went to work pulling away the rags that Kat once called clothes from her body. She stopped when a hand came up and grabbed her wrist. Kat’s eyes fluttered open, Alcina was surprised by them. The whites of her eyes were completely black and the iris was a piercing white. Almost like snow or porcelain, and it was like a light was shining from them. Kat’s hand slid off of her wrist and she fell forward. Her head landed on Alcina’s chest, Alcina pressed her hand against the back of Kat’s bald head. Kat closed her eyes letting out a slow exhale. 

“Can you do this on your own?” Alcina asked, looking down at Kat and stroking her scalp. Kat waited a moment, lifting her hand and her limbs were shaking like she had been out in the cold for hours and hours with nothing to keep her warm. Finally, Kat shook her head. Alcina nodded.

“May I?” Alcina asked gently, grabbing a fist full of rags into her hands. Kat nodded, her head still pressed against her chest. Alcina stepped back and Kat straightened her back, she hung her head, her eyes fixed on a single tile on the bathroom floor. 

“Yes.” Kat said, her voice was soft like her mind was occupied with other thoughts. Kat stood up on quivering legs, pulling off the rest of her clothing with shaking hands. Her eyes still looked distant and when Alcina tried to make eye contact Kat made an effort to look away from her. Her arms wrapped around her now bare body. 

Alcina offered her a hand and helped her into the bath. Kat let out a quiet hiss as the water touched the skin of her legs, perhaps it was too hot? Slowly Kat sat down in the water settling against the back of the tub. Her eyes were glassy, and Alcina swore she could see them shimmering. 

Alcina grabbed a bar of soap dragging it along Kat’s skin gently. It left behind trails of bubbles. Alcina gently washed the blotches of blood from her skin. Kat still sat motionless and limp in the water. Alcina was half afraid she was going to slide up the water in the tub. Finally, after a moment Kat reached up and touched the light marks of her face left behind from the hunter’s nails. Her bottom lip quivered for a moment before she set her jaw and blinked back what Alcina could only assume were tears. 

“Lady Dimitrescu?” Kat asked her voice breathless and faint.

“Yes?” Alcina asked, looking into Kat’s eyes. 

“Am I a monster?” Kat asked after a long, shaky, inhale. Her words caused Alcina to pause for a moment. 

“I don’t think you are.” She said after a minute resuming her slow circles along Kat’s skin. 

“I tried to stop, I really did.” Kat said sniffling, her shoulders shook slightly. “It was like I wasn’t even in control of my own body.” Kat hugged herself, her hands rubbing up and down her arms. “I was so hungry.” Her voice was soft and shaky. Her arms shook and her eyes were wide. 

“It couldn’t have been stopped.” Alcina said, placing a gentle hand on Kat’s shoulder.

“Like you would know.” Kat half growled and half sobbed, her voice laced with sarcasm and venom, Kat shifted her shoulder so Alcina’s hand fell off of her. 

“More than you could ever imagine.” Alcina said, raising her volume slightly. Kat went silent for a moment, shrinking down into the water so that the top of her lips was under the water, her eyes darted over to Alcina. Kat sighed, little bubbles rippled through the water. 

“I’m sorry that was…” Kat began uncurling and straightening her back slightly.

“It’s alright.” Alcina said gently. 

  
  
  
  


Kat felt like she was floating, and not in a good way. She felt weightless like a ghost, and she felt hollow and empty like her heart had been scooped out of her chest. She just wanted to curl up and never wake up again. Her mind still raced, she had killed her. She killed her. She  _ murdered _ someone and ate the corpse-like some animal. 

She felt like crying, but a monster like her didn’t deserve to cry, she deserved to be locked and never see the light of day again. When she asked Lady Dimitrescu if she was a monster, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to hear. Yes or no? Did it matter? But it didn’t really matter what Lady Dimitrescu said because Kat’s subconscious made up its mind. And its answer was a yes. Yes, she was a monster. 

She was clean now, and she still felt dirty. She could still feel the blood of her victim on her hands. And she had a feeling it would never really go away. It was stuck, doomed to be a part of her forever. 

Lady Dimitrescu helped her out of the bath and handed her a fluffy towel to dry herself off with, while she went to go find a bathrobe. Kat dried herself off without really thinking about it, she still felt weightless. 

She could still see that woman’s face. Her fearful eyes shimmering with tears, and her pleasing voice begging for Kat to spare her life. All of it had been drowned out by her raging hunger, screaming for her to sink her teeth into the flesh of this poor, helpless human. And she did without a second thought.

Lady Dimitrescu came back, with a fluffy white bathrobe in her hands. Kat pulled it on smiling softly as the soft fabric brushed against her skin. She tied the fabric belt around her waist making a neat little bow. 

“Thank you.” Kat said softly, looking up at Lady Dimitrescu, she didn't have to crane her neck up so far, she was now to her shoulder. Lady Dimitrescu smiled softly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sad tyrant hours


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Kat laid on her bed above the sheets, it was far too hot beneath the blankets even though this place lacked heating and was in the middle of a snowstorm. Her eyes were closed but her mind was very much awake, much to her frustration. Her thoughts did not share any continuity or real connection to each other, they were just random thoughts fluttering around in her mind. 

She thought of Lady Dimitrescu’s daughters. The way they actively avoided her in the hallways. She hadn’t even seen Eliane. Damara had stopped to ask her mother a question and when she spotted Kat, no matter how hard she tried to hide it Kat had seen the way her pale face seemed to pale even further. And though Damara had the courage to pass her in the hall, unlike Daniela who just turned around and went the other way, she had made sure to do it on the other side of the hallways far out of Kat’s reach. She couldn’t blame them, she would have avoided herself if it were possible, but it still stung. It was like a slap in the face. 

She pushed her thoughts out of her head, she didn’t need that constant reminder. She knew she was a dangerous creature, she had been from the start. But it was just easier to hide it when one wasn’t an eight-foot-tall menace with discolored skin. Kat hadn’t realized she had been clenching her jaw until her teeth began to ache and she relaxed and she sagged into the mattress. 

Kat turned over onto her side, burying her nose in the soft fabric of the bathrobe. It still smelled like Lady Dimitrescu, well at least her perfume. She tried not to let her mind wander to Lady Dimitrescu again, how gently she had been, how caring she had seemed, the way her voice usually so strong and commanding, was soft and gentle as it drifted through the air and caressed Kat’s ear. Kat could still feel the rhythmic circles on her skin made by Lady Dimitrescu gently rubbing the soap bar on her skin. Kat shivered as what felt like a bolt of electricity ran up her spine.

She sat up in her bed smacking the sides of her face as if she was trying to knock the thoughts out of her head. She could feel her cheeks warming up like a stove. She felt like she was going to burst into flames at any moment. She squeezed her eyes shut, but that didn’t help because now she could see Lady Dimitrescu’s gentle expression behind her eyes, as if it had been burned into the back of her eyelids. Kat opened her eyes and stared into the darkness, the image from her mind faded and she curled into herself. 

She laid back down and turned over in the bed so she was laying on her stomach. The old wood creaked up her body and it almost seemed like it was threatening to collapse out from underneath her, she really hoped it didn't and that would be really inconvenient. She relaxed when the groaning had stopped. She pressed her cheek into the soft pillows and closed her eyes. The exhaustion from the stress and gut-curdling events of the day finally took hold of Kat and she allowed herself to fall into a dreamless sleep. 

  
  
  
  


Damara found Mother in her usual relaxation spot in front of the fire. She was reading a new book, but that wasn’t the only thing about her that Damara noticed was different. Mother was also humming to herself. Something she only did when she was content. Damara stood in the doorway for a moment longer, listening to her Mother. She always liked it when Mother hummed it was such a calming sound.

Technically Damara should be in bed, it was late, very late and she had a long day. But then again, Mother should be in bed as well. 

But she came here for a reason. She pushed the ajar door open and stepped in. Mother’s humming abruptly stopped and she looked up from the page she was on. “Yes, dear?” She asked as Damara walked further into the room. She suddenly lost all the words she wanted to say, feeling a sudden moment of anxiety.

“Mother,” Damara finally said looking up at her mother sitting in her armchair. 

“Yes?” Mother asked. 

“May I talk to you about something?” She asked.

“Of course, sit.” She said motioning towards the armchair. Damara quickly walked over to it and sat down, the fabric bouncing lightly as she did so. 

“What did you wish to speak to me about?” Mother asked, putting her book down and threading her fingers together, focusing all of her attention on Damara. Damara fought the urge to look away. 

“I want to speak to you about Kat.” Damara said, after a moment of hesitation. 

“I see.” Mother said. Damara paused waiting for Mother to speak. But Mother said nothing just stared at her expectantly. Damara cleared her throat trying to break the silence before talking. 

“I - We -She’s not safe.” Damara began. “You saw her,  _ I _ saw her. The way she tore that hunger apart, the look in her eye. I don’t feel safe.” Damara said, deciding to get to the point quickly rather than rambling around. 

“I understand how you feel.” Mother began. “But-” Oh god, Mother was using her ‘lecture voice’. Damara internally groaned. She mentally prepared herself for the upcoming lecture. “-I think she could prove to be a valuable ally.” Mother said. Damara waited for the rest of the lecture, but nothing came. 

Damara eyed her Mother carefully inspecting her face. Mother was keeping Kat around for another reason, but Damara couldn’t quite place it. “I understand Mother.” Damara said, giving up on trying to figure out what Mother’s other reasoning was without blatantly asking her. She moved to get up, she stretched, and her joint popped. “Goodnight.”

“Good night, my love.” Mother said, her eyes were soft. She stood up and walked over to Damara bending at the waist to press a kiss against her forehead. Damara leaned into her, and Mother put her arms around her. They stayed like that for a moment before she pulled away and headed out the door. 

“Tomorrow I want us out there looking for the other two hunters.” Mother added as she sat back down. “Make sure to bring Kat with us.” Damara opened her mouth to protest but Mother continued talking. “I don’t expect her to fight, if anything she will act as a way to discourage them from approaching us.” She said. Damara nodded and closed the door behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter(s?) we will be focusing on Heisenberg.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Damara knocked sharply on Kat’s door in the morning. Mother had found some clothes for her lodges away in the back of her closet and instructed her to bring them to Kat. It was the largest clothes that Mother could find that were not hers, servant clothes, or her daughters. 

“Come in.” Came a soft voice. It was almost too quiet to travel through the thick wooden door. The door’s lock was still busted and it was not able to keep any unwanted people out, but Damara supposed it was still good to be respectful of people’s privacy. Damara pushed the door open sticking her head inside the room. Kat sat in the middle of her bed, the mattress dipped where she was, she still in Mother’s old bathrobe. Her legs were crossed and her hands were in her lap. She looked like a child waiting for their punishment. And the look on her face didn’t help either, she just looked downright miserable and wasn’t even trying to hide it. 

Kat looked at Damara waiting for her to talk. Damara stepped further into the room and set the clothes down onto the bed. “These are for you.” She said, Kat barely nodded her head. Damara felt herself tense from being so close to her. She glanced at Kat quickly, her hands were still on her lap. The only part of her was her eyes which were fixated on Damara. Damara fought the urge to run when she turned to leave her room. She could still feel Kat’s eyes watching her and it made her feel like a predator was hidden waiting to pounce on her. 

“Thank you.” Kat finally said, her voice was a little deeper Damara noticed, not by much, just an octave or two. Damara jumped when Kat spoke whipping around to look at her. Her heart pounding, Kat watched her with a slightly surprised expression on her face. She chuckled softly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” She said, gently taking the clothes into her hands like they were something precious to her.

“You didn’t.” Damara lied. She gave Kat one last look before she turned to exit her room, but she stopped for a moment grabbing the door frame and turning to look at Kat. “Oh, Mother said that she wants you to come with me when I patrol for more hunters.” Damara said quickly. She turned her back onto Kat and finally walked out of the room, closing the door behind her with a gentle click. 

  
  
  
  


The clothes that Lady Dimitrescu had provided her were a little curious to Kat. She had only ever seen the people of this castle ever wear dresses, obviously, that didn’t mean that was all that was in their wardrobe, but the only clothes like this she had seen worn on anyone were Heisenberg.

The pants would have been baggy on a normal person but for Kat, they were just right. They were too short, the end of the leg only coming down to the middle of her shin. She supposed it would be fine, the cold hadn’t seemed to cause her too much discomfort. The shirt was about the same, it was a white button-down. When Kat looked at herself in the mirror she thought she looked like a cartoonish pioneer about to traverse some rocky plain. She chuckled what a silly thought.

Oddly enough Kat wasn’t very hungry this morning. Her stomach was still full and digesting what she had eaten last night. She was surprised that her stomach didn’t hurt after consuming so much flesh the day before. The thought made Kat actually feel a little sick, she pushed the thoughts out of her mind before she lost the contents of her stomach all over the floor. 

Instead of heading into the kitchen or dining room, she wanted at the entrance. Her thoughts turned to what Damara has said. Hunters? She had never heard of them before, were there enough people like her to warrant humans going around trying to kill them. Kat wasn’t sure if she was happy or concerned about that. It meant that A: she wasn’t alone which was a little bit of a comfort for Kat. But it also meant that B: there were people in the world who wanted her dead with her head mounted on the wall, which was downright terrifying. 

She walked down to the castle’s entrance, her bare feet gently slapping against the cold tiled floor. The tiles were of various colors and made patterns on the floor that almost reminded Kat of a flower, the center tile of the flower pattern was one color while the ones surrounding it were another. 

Kat walked into the main room, she took her time to examine the surrounding areas. She saw a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, the candles that were attached to the curved edges were not currently lit, but Kat could see the wicks were blackened by flame. Giant wooden door tower before her, Kat looked around for a place to sit down, she saw nothing but another case of stairs. She walked over to it and sat down on the fourth to the last step. If she was smaller she might have sat on the last step, but now she was giant, and if she did that her legs would have to fold up in an unformattable way. 

There was suddenly tapping down the hall, Kat leaned forward and craned her back so she was looking into the hallways she had just been down. She saw Damara briskly walking out of it a small swarm of incest flew around her. She stopped and looked around. “Here you are.” She said when she spotted Kat. “Are you ready?” She asked. Kat didn’t respond verbally but nodded at her. “Good.” She said. 

They marched towards the door, Kat tried to quicken her pace to catch up with Damara but it seemed that when Kat picked up her pace so did she. It was almost like she was running away. Eventually, Kat just accepted that she was going to be walking behind Damara, it was probably for the best. She didn’t actually know where she was going. Before they stepped outside, Damara pulled her veil over her head and stepped out of the door. 

  
  
  
  


The walk through the woods was silent other than the sound of leaves and snow crunching under their feet and the sound of animals that were awake this morning. Kat had so many questions that she wanted to ask, but the stern and ready look on Damara’s face made it seem like she would snap at her if Kat even opened her mouth. So she remained silent. The sun was just peaking over the horizon. Kat’s feet were still bare and instead of making her feet feel numb, the snow actually felt like a soft blanket that had been stored in the freezer.

Before they were deep in the woods they stepped over a patch of ground that seemed different. Kat looked down and jumped back releasing that she was standing on a frozen corpse. Their face was open wide and their sunken-in and shriveled eyes were wide with terror. She stepped off of it, looking at Damra who hadn’t even seemed to notice it at all. 

Kat spared the body one last glance before she turned and speed-walked over to Damara making sure to keep herself at a distance. They continued on their path for a while without much interruption. Kat took the opportunity to take in the capture around her, the trees looked beautiful, some branches were covered in icicles, others were completely unaffected. She smiled softly. It was all so beautiful. 

Suddenly they heard leaves rustling. Kat tensed wondering if it was one of the hunters, or something else. She looked around spinning in space, she couldn’t see anything that was making that noise. She swore she could hear growling and snarling in the distance, like an echo. Kat stepped forward, Damara’s head snapped in her direction and her mouth opened as if to tell her to get back, but Kat kept walking forward. 

She squinted her eyes and looked over the small hill that they were about to walk down. She saw two figures standing just over the curve. They were moving erratically. Kat stepped closer but the figures did some of that job for her by moving up the hill fast. They jumped around each other like they were performing some bizarre dance, they were swiping their hands at each other, their mouths were open and their teeth were bared at each other. It took Kat a full minute to realize that they were fighting.

She got a little closer and realized that it was Heisenberg and some other person, her eyes widened, it was the creature that had attacked her in the village.


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there. It's been a hot minute since I updated. Sorry about the wait.
> 
> I decided to take a little break because I've been really stressed lately. I probably won't be updating every day because that took a bit of a toll on me. I'm going to try to update every week, and I'm going to try to make more than one chapter. 
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy :)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

**One Day Before**

Heisenberg should have taken the underground passageway to get back to his territory. But he didn’t. He really wished he had, he would have gotten there so much sooner, maybe he would have been able to prevent what happened next.

The moment he set foot within his grounds he immediately knew something was very very wrong, the air smelled of blood and sweat, not human blood lycan blood. Oh no. He felt the hairs on his back and neck stand up on end, He slowed his pace and looked around at his surroundings as he approached. The compound was silent and still, usually, he would hear something indicating that there was life inside of it, but today there was nothing. He felt a sense of dread beginning to fill him, it spread from his chest down to his limbs slowly making him feel numb inside. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and could hear the blood roaring in his ears. 

The cold from the snow seemed to seep into him from the bottoms of his feet, pushing out all the warmth until there was nothing but a bitter chill running through him. He tried to shake the feeling off, but it kept coming back, seeping back into him like a weed whose roots were already far too deep to be dealt with. 

There were guards standing outside of the factory doors. Well, they weren’t standing, they were sitting with ice and snow built up on their faces, it clung to their eyebrows and the hair on their heads and faces in thick chunks. 

The closer Heisenberg got the more and more they looked like shells of who they once were. All of their faces were pale, they had dark circles under their hollowed and empty eyes, and their lips were trembling and blue. He wondered how long they had been out here and why they hadn’t switched out to warm up. He felt concern rising in his chest. 

Heisenberg looked around at the faces that were now turning to look up at him from where they sat huddled on the ground. That was when he realized that they were not guards. They were just random members of his pack left out in the cold to die. He felt a flare of anger rush through him, who would do this? His mind drifted back to the conversation he had with Kat. The big black lycan she had described looked a hell of a lot like Brutus. Down to his coat color and his sheer size (but he wasn't absolutely sure -pretty sure but not absulutely- best not to jump to conclusions). Brutus was one of the few lycans that was actually taller than him. 

The damn insubordinate was constantly trying to undermine him to take over. The only thing that saved Heisenberg from ever actually having to fight him for his place as pack leader, was the fact that Brutus was a coward. He would never say such things to Heisenberg’s face, only when he thought his back was turned.

There was a part of Heisenberg that asked himself why he kept Brutus around when he was fully aware of his lack of respect towards his superiors. But the other part of him knew exactly why he kept him around, for one Brutus had never done something like  _ this _ before and Heisenberg had been almost certain that Brutus was too much of a coward to even attempt something like this, clearly he was mistaken. Gravely mistaken. Despite his insubordination, Briticus was a skilled fighter and due to his sheer size, he was able to quickly take down his opponents. He was a useful person to have on one’s side if one was willing to ignore his bad-mouthing. 

Heisenberg knelt down in front of one of his pack members. Unlike some they were unable to look him in the eye. They turned their head away glancing at him, but not keeping eye contact. He looked at the young lycans face, it was dirty and pale from being exposed to the cold for too long. He didn’t know this one’s name, he tried to retain faces and names of all of his pack but sometimes he just couldn’t.

“What happened?” He asked, his voice sounding too loud for the quiet environment. The lycan flinched when Heisenberg spoke and seemed to shrink back when Heisenberg shuffled closer. The young lycan didn’t speak; it was almost like he was too scared to say anything. Heisenberg hesitantly put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey.” He said softly when the young lycan tried to shuffle out from under his hand. He stopped moving and looked up at Heisenberg with dull yellow eyes. “I need you to tell me what happened.” He said softly. 

“We spoke against him, and he didn’t like that.” The lycan said in a soft shaky voice looking around with wide eyes like he expected whoever “him” is to jump out of a corner and attack him.

“Who?” Heisenberg asked.

The young lycan looked around before he leaned forward so he could whisper in Heisenberg’s ear. “Brutus.” The young lycan breathed, a cloud puffed out of his mouth. Hiesenberg felt his emotions darken. He knew it. Heisenberg sat up with a heavy sigh, he nodded and stood up to his full height. So it was Brutus behind this. That made this whole situation both harder and easier at the same time. 

“Thank you…” He paused searching their face trying to find the name that went with it, he couldn't find it no matter how far he dug into the back of his mind. When he waited too long the young lycan corrected him, sheepishly. 

“Antonov.” The lycan said softly. Heisenberg nodded before he stepped forward again feeling both determination and dread filling him. The doors to the factory were frozen shut. He yanked on it but nothing happened. He could feel his pack member watching him intently, oddly he felt as if they were judging him (they probably were). He paused for a moment gathering his strength and with a hard yank the door opened with a sharp crack. Ice flew off of the door and tinkled onto the ground. 

“Everyone inside.” He ordered sharply, he watched as some of the lycans around him jumped at his sudden change in volume. 

“But Brutus said-” A different pack member began with a shaky voice. They looked just as tired and as cold as Antonov, the only difference was that this one had a deep cut on their shoulder. Their clothes were soaked with frozen blood and the wound was puffy and red. Heisenberg couldn’t tell if their voice was shaking from the cold or out of fear. It was probably both. Heisenberg felt his jaw clench and rage slowly boil inside of him like a furnace that was slowly heated up. 

“I don’t  _ care _ what he said.” Heisenberg said, his voice soft. “Everyone in _ side _ . Now.” He growled his voice gradually getting harder and harder. Very slowly his pack members picked themselves off the snow-covered ground and shuffled through the door, some leaving bloody tracks in the snow. Heisenberg held the door open for them. He examined them as they passed him, many of them had a scratch or two raked down their bodies. Some had bite marks torn into them as well. All were in bad shape. 

How dare he? How dare Brutus to treat Heisenberg’s pack with such brutality. Even  _ Heisenberg _ wasn’t this harsh. Sure the ranks needed to be put into check sometimes, but he never _never_ went as far as to leave them alone in the cold to die. Thoughts filled his mind about how he could kill Brutus. He could tear open his stomach and pull out his entrails and string them on a tree, like Christmas tree streamers. He could slit his throat and stand over him as he bled out watching the life leave his eyes. Oh, there was so much more he could do. Heisenberg felt his jaw clenching so tightly as he thought that when he came back to himself his teeth ached for a few minutes.

When the last pack member went through the door and into the complex’s lobby. Heisenberg followed in, allowing the door to shut behind him. They all slowly stumbled their ways into the corners huddling together for warmth and comfort. He saw one whose clothes were so torn they were practically naked. They looked up at him, their eyes were full of sorrow and shame. Heisenberg slipped his trench coat off of his body and gently draped it over their shoulders. For a moment they looked startled and then they pulled the thick fabric closer to their body, snuggling into it. 

The metal scraped against each other and he saw the ranks cringe at the sound, and he saw their eyes dart around like they expected the abrupt noise to call a monster to attack them. Heisenberg, with one last glance back at his people, stalked off further into the factory. He pushed open the inner entrance doors open with a hard shove. The metal door flew open so quickly that they slammed into the nearby wall. Heisenberg felt his muscles tensing ready for a fight. He stepped forward ready to end this once and for all. 


End file.
